A Different Side Of Me
by pale rose fire
Summary: Kuroko's so quiet and plays things so close to the vest that there are a lot of things that not even those closest to him know. A 100 Drabbles Challenge fic, where you'll learn 100 things you never knew about everyone's favorite phantom.
1. Kuroko no Steampunk

Disclaimer for all chapters: I don't own Kuroko no Basuke nanodayo.

This is going to be a 100 Drabbles challenge. In each one, a different side of Kuroko, or something about him that his friends and teammates never knew is going to be revealed, to the audience at least, but not always to the characters. Most of these are unrelated to each other, some may deviate greatly from canon, or be kind of AU, and there will probably even be some crossovers. I hope you'll enjoy it, and please remember to review!

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Curiosity killed the cat is how the saying goes, so Teiko's Generation of Miracles expected that something might go wrong when they decided to invade their Sixth Phantom Member's home. But they were curious, and they couldn't help it. All of them, even Akashi, wanted to know more about their sixth member. And honestly, they were all a little bit worried too. The past few Mondays, Kuroko had come to school with fresh bruises, mostly on his arms, but one on his face, like he'd been punched in the cheek. He claimed that they happened in an accident with a project he was working on, but that was a tough sell since he wouldn't tell them what the project even was.

"It's just a thing I'm working on," he said, clearly trying to redirect their conversation.

"For school?" Akashi himself had asked, trying to get to the bottom of this.

"No . . . it's just another interest of mine. But it won't interfere with basketball, I promise," said Kuroko, and he'd continued to be evasive about the details of it.

Leading his friends to believe that said project and interest didn't exist, and that something more sinister was at work. Their shadow was so small and defenseless, so can you really blame them for being protective?

"Shintarou, what are you doing?" asked Akashi when they arrived, but before they could knock on the door.

"My lucky item for today was a lock pick. Fate clearly wants me to use it," said Midorima blandly as he fiddled with the lock.

"Er, I thought we were planning on, you know, knocking?" Kise said .

"We were planning on figuring out what has been happening to give Kuroko those bruises," said Midorima, not looking up. "Knocking would be announcing our presence to any party who might seek to keep the reason for those bruises concealed. Thus, we're entering in a way which won't alert any opposing parties to our presence. This is what it means for a man to propose."

"Uh, okay, if you say so."

Fate on his side or not, Midorima wasn't a very good lock pick. It took a couple minutes for him to get the door open. But when he finally did, they slowly eased it open and stepped inside the apartment. And stared.

It was like walking onto the set of a Steampunk movie. Everything was decorated in a futuristic Victorian style. The walls were all painted dark brown and vintage portraits hung on them in heavy brass frames, and there were also pieces of welded art containing gears, cogs, and other clockwork pieces.

"Does Kurokocchi really live here?" asked Kise, voicing what they were all thinking. This didn't look anything like what they were expecting Kuroko's house to look like.

The further in they got, the more it looked like the home of a mad genius mechanic. Shelves and curio cabinets were filled with tiny clockwork ornaments, compasses, mechanical creatures, and small brass and gear devices that didn't seem to have any real purpose. The lights were all refitted gas lamps, converted to use electricity, and in the living room was a computer with a keyboard refitted with antique typewriter keys, a mouse covered with riveted brass, a screen that was framed with wood and brass fixings, and a speaker that had once been an old phonograph.

The kitchen was where they found Kuroko, and it was easily the most bizarre room in the house. The modern appliances like the oven and refrigerator had been covered with brass sheets, riveted in place, and been refitted with trimmings to make them look like they were from another century. Knobs were replaced with gears and dials. An ice cream freezer stood beside the refrigerator, decked in brass like its counterpart. Only the microwave had been left un-steampunked, probably because Kuroko was afraid of blowing it up if he covered it with metal.

Kuroko himself sat at the kitchen table, not in his school uniform or basketball clothes for once. He wore an Abney Park T-shirt, a pair of cargo pants, a brown leather tool belt, and a pair of goggles. The goggles looked particularly bizarre, since they were fitted on one side with several extra lenses for magnification, one of which Kuroko was currently using to do some small scale work with a jeweler's screwdriver and a pair of tweezers. His project was spread out on the table in front of him, an assortment of gears, bolts, and brass plates, that looked like organized chaos to anyone who hadn't placed them where they were. Right in front of him, the thing that he was working on, seemed to be a fist-sized clockwork dog. He was so absorbed in his task that he didn't even notice his friends had entered the kitchen. The only movements that he made were to tweak some gears, and to switch the magnification lenses on his goggles, pushing one out of the way, and pulling another, stronger one down in its place.

After all five boys spent a good half minute staring, Aomine finally opened his mouth.

"Hey, Tetsu!"

Kuroko jumped in his seat. His hand slipped, and then the clockwork dog in front of him flew apart with surprising force. Pieces flew every which way, but a large number of them right at Kuroko, who was at point blank range. The force knocked him backwards, knocking over his chair.

"Tetsu!"

"Kurokocchi!"

Aomine and Kise raced to their friend, as Akashi, Midorima, and Murasakibara stood back, staring.

"You alright? What was that?" Aomine asked as he and Kise lifted him back to his feet.

"Everyone . . . what are you doing here? Did something happen?" asked Kuroko, looking self conscious as he pulled down his goggles so they hung around his neck. One small bruise was starting to form on his chin where a piece of the clockwork dog had hit him, while several more were blossoming on his forearms, which he'd mostly shielded himself with. They were almost identical to the bruises that had so worried his team the past few weeks, they noticed ruefully.

"We just came to visit you, Kurokocchi," said Kise, wrapping his arms around Kuroko in a strangling hug. "You never let us come over, so we were curious. You have a really neat house! Did your parents decorate it like that?"

Kuroko bowed his head, clearly embarrassed. "No. They're not home enough to really care what the house looks like."

"So you are responsible for the decorating?" asked Akashi.

Kuroko nodded and peeked up at them through his bangs, awaiting their decision.

"Cool," said Aomine without a second thought.

"Unusual. But interesting," Midorima agreed .

"It suits you," Akashi offered, nodding toward Kuroko's outfit with a slight smile.

"Ne, does Kuro-chin have anything to eat?"

"Oh, yes. Sorry. I've forgotten my manners. Please sit down," Kuroko said, distangling himself from Kise's grasp. Then he stared at the mess on his kitchen table. "Oh, er, the living room is probably better for eating."

"Please don't trouble yourself," said Akashi. "It's our manners that are lacking. We did come over without calling."

"And we broke in," added Kise to be helpful.

Nonetheless, Kuroko ushered them into the living room, and minutes later, was serving them tea out of a brass tea pot decorated with gears, and matching teacups, while they ate crumpets and tea cookies.

* * *

I just think a steampunk!Kuroko would be adorable. Especially if he was wearing goggles.

The descriptions of steampunk decorations draw heavily from Heather Fleming's Grotesque Game novel, especially the description of Kuroko's kitchen. No plagiarism intended!

Please review!


	2. Kuroko no Ebony

Warning: Spoilers for Chapter 236 (first quarter of the finals in Winter Cup). But the spoilers are in the first few paragraphs only, and what happens after that is my own imagination figuring out a way for Kuroko to get around his ex-captain's taunts. The next few chapters are likely to render my pet theory about Kuroko obsolete, so I figured I'd write this one quickly and post it now.

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"When you found your own way of basketball in Teiko I told you to train only your passing and not learn any shooting or other skills. Do you know why? That's because I knew if I let you learn them your special ability (Lack of Presence) would totally be faded away in the future. Vanishing Drive, Phantom Shot, how could you not get any attention from those fancy techniques? The buzzer beater you scored in the semi-finals was also the killing shot. Only because you emitted a dim ray of light, you can no longer be a shadow anymore." Akashi gave Kuroko a cruel smile. "How funny that the peak where you ended up, is the same place where you first started. At the level of a third string player."

The rest of the first quarter, those final few minutes of it left at least, were brutal for Seirin. Without Kuroko's misdirection working, and with that shocking news, Seirin was demoralized. Truthfully, they didn't even know what to say to Kuroko to even try to fix this. What was there to say to something so word-shattering like that?

And Akashi's words, they realized, were true. Kuroko was completely visible, both to every player on Rakuzan who rendered him completely obsolete, and to the audience who began to ridicule the small player.

Riko pulled Kuroko off the court for the second quarter. Kuroko sat away from his teammates, who let him, not knowing what to say to him or how to help him. Little did they know, Kuroko was already figuring out a way to help himself. Or more correctly, he'd already figured out a way. It wasn't something he wanted to do at all . . . but there was really no choice.

Before the beginning of the ten minute break between the first and second halves, he covered his head with a towel and slipped away from his team, hurrying to the bathroom.

If he was honest with himself, he'd had a suspicion that it was going to come down to this. He hadn't known for sure, and he'd hoped it wouldn't . . . but now he was certain that this was the only way.

His lack of presence disappearing wasn't the problem. Kuroko realized that almost immediately after being benched. As though something he'd been trying his whole life to overcome could be blasted away on accident, right when he needed it to continue the most. The very notion was so ironic that he hadn't even thought about how unbelievable it was. But when he did, Kuroko realized that Akashi had been lying.

He shouldn't have put it past his ex-captain, he knew. Akashi would do anything to win. Whether it was lying, or training his team to be hyper-attentive to Kuroko's unique light blue hair color. And Kuroko realized now that Akashi had done both.

Unfortunately for Akashi, Kuroko hadn't left Teiko without taking a little bit of their motto to heart. 100 battles, 100 victories. In other words, do whatever it takes to win.

Those words were in Kuroko's mind as he turned the faucet of a bathroom sink on full power and held his head as close to it as he could, cupping the water in his hands and splashing it over his hair. He worked as quickly as he could, knowing his time was short. Pale blue water seeped down the sides of his face as the pastel dye from his hair dissolved and disappeared down the drain.

A minute later, just as Kuroko heard an announcement made about half time beginning, he straightened up and turned off the water. Before looking at the mirror, he carefully reached for his right eye with two gentle fingers.

A part of him protested this, even more than what he'd just finished. He loved his eyes. His fake eyes, that is. Those baby blues had made him stand out more than even his hair, or so he'd always believed. Unfortunately, they were just as fake. And now, more than ever, Kuroko couldn't afford to stand out. It was time to go back to being faceless and unknown, and utterly unrecognizable. Completely unremarkable.

The reflection that stared back at him in the mirror was just that.

Black hair, like that of over 99 percent of Japan's population had. Black eyes without luster or any sparks of life, that no one would give a second glance to. A face with no distinguishing features, that was completely forgettable. Kuroko couldn't even recognize himself.

"It's been awhile," he told his reflection softly, and even though he saw his reflection's mouth move exactly when his own did, at just the right time, he couldn't really believe that it was him speaking.

The door opened just as he finished towel drying his hair, and in walked Midorima and Takao. Kuroko stared into the mirror and tried to meet Takao's eyes with his reflection. This wasn't the first test he would have preferred. Takao's hawk eye was couple levels up from what he'd prefer to start off his tests for how effective this really was. But if he could fool the hawk eye right off the bat, then couldn't he slip past anyone?

He saw Takao's silvery blue eyes flit over him, over everything in the rest room. They zeroed in on the towel Kuroko had just set aside. Then they skimmed right over Kuroko, completely missing both him and his reflection.

Bingo.

Kuroko hid a smile, remembering that for this to work best, he had to hide all emotions. But inside his fighting spirit was crackling like a campfire.

He left the bathroom and entered the hallway. Almost immediately, someone almost ran into him. A quick step saved Kuroko from a trip to the floor, and he reminded himself that he had to be more careful than he had been. When his hair was blue, people had seemed to register his presence on an unconscious level and subconsciously avoided him. But before he'd dyed his hair, back in elementary school, walking down a hallway or down a busy sidewalk had always been a battle.

The trip back to Seirin's locker room proved to be a monumentally successful test run. He slipped past numerous players he recognized, including Tsugawa and his sempai from Seihou, and the remainder of Shuutoku's team. He walked right through the middle of Kaijou's team, brushing against a depressed Kise, and ducking under the punch that a worried Kasamatsu delivered to Kise's side to try to snap him out of it. He cut through the narrow space between Hanamiya and that other genius on Kirisaki Daichi's team, without either of the high IQ teens even noticing.

Murasakibara almost inadvertently crushed Kuroko as he was walking by. To get out of his way fast enough, Kuroko accidentally ended up tripping Himuro, whose path he had to cut across.

"You alright, Muro-chin?" Murasakibara asked carelessly, putting a steadying hand on his shoulder. "Why'd you trip?"

"I don't know," said Himuro. "It was like I ran into someone, but . . ."

Murasakibara, familiar with this scenario, immediately straightened and looked around. "Kuro-chin?" he called, scanning the crowd right around them.

His eyes passed right over Kuroko's, and for a second Kuroko thought he'd been spotted. But then the second passed and he realized Murasakibara hadn't seen him at all.

It hurt a little, but not as much as getting knocked down by Aomine did. That was the final test. Kuroko was surprised how many test runs he was able to get in, just on his way to Seirin's locker room. Then he realized why and felt a little bad. His friends were out looking for him. They were worried about him.

Aomine and Momoi were camping in the hall outside Seirin's locker room. They were talking with Kagami when Kuroko approached, and to Kuroko's great surprise, they were talking civily.

"Seen any sign of him at all?" Kagami asked, a worried and annoyed expression on his face.

Aomine shook his head, looking very troubled.

"The others are keeping an eye out for him too," said Momoi. "Midorin and his friend with the hawk eye are in the south hall where the bathrooms are, Mukkun's keeping an eye on the snack vendors, and Ki-chan's spot checking as many different places as he can think of."

"Just go back to your team. Make sure you guys have your head in the game, or I'm seriously going to kick all your asses," said Aomine. "Tetsu's going to be fine. He'll be back when he's ready. So you better keep playing like you want to win, and make sure there's something worthwhile for him to come back to."

Kagami returned to the locker room. Kuroko waited before following. He wanted to see if he could open the door and walk in on his own without being seen, instead of just slipping in after Kagami.

"I'm really worried, Dai-chan," Momoi said as soon as the door closed behind Kagami.

"I know. If it was just basketball, it would be one thing," said Aomine, in a voice that Kuroko had never heard him use before. "But this . . ."

"This is about Tetsu-kun's whole identity," said Momoi. "And he stands to lose everything he's worked for. If he loses basketball forever because of this . . ."

Aomine's eyes suddenly looked frantic. "What? What does your data tell you he'll do?"

"I don't . . . I . . ."

"Satsuki . . ."

"I can never predict what Tetsu-kun will do," said Momoi. "But a normal person wouldn't survive it."

Aomine's eyes turned to steel. "Then we're lucky Tetsu's not a normal person. He'll come out of this fine. Or we'll find a way to fix it for him. But damn, I can't believe Akashi going this far."

He turned and started walking then, and walked right into Kuroko, who he knocked right off his feet.

"Whoa, sorry . . . wait . . . what . . ." Aomine looked around, and even looked down at Kuroko who was at his feet without seeing him. "Huh?"

Momoi, like Murasakibara, knew what this was an indication of. "Tetsu-kun?"

They looked around, but neither saw him. Kuroko picked himself up and slid to stand beside the door of Seirin's locker room.

"I could have sworn . . . but no, there's no way that could have been him," said Aomine.

"Not now," agreed Momoi, her eyes glittering with tears. "Not now that he's lost his lack of presence."

Kuroko almost spoke up then to tell them that wasn't true. He hated leaving his friends looking that morose. But he was worried that if he broke his ghost act now, he might not be able to start it again. It wasn't rational, and he knew it, but all athletes were superstitious to some degree, and Kuroko was no exception. And this was for winning the championship for Seirin. This was for his team. Aomine and Momoi, and the rest of the Generation of Miracles could endure being worried for half an hour, Kuroko decided. He'd spent months worrying about all of them, after all.

No one noticed him when he slipped silently into Seirin's locker room, and caught the end of the team's pep talk. No one noticed him fall in right behind the freshman trio. And when the third quarter started, no one noticed him on Seirin's bench. Not his own team. Not Rakuzan's team or the audience. Not even Akashi. Kuroko felt his ex-captain's Emperor Eye pass right over him like he wasn't even there.

It wasn't until midway through the third period when a time out was called, and Kuroko joined his team for a huddle that they realized he was there. Kiyoshi found him out when he almost stepped on him.

"Oh, sorry there – Ah!"

"It's alright, Kiyoshi-sempai," Kuroko said in his usual deadpan way.

Everyone stared.

"Who are you?" demanded Riko.

"What are – _Kuroko?_" Kagami recognized him quickly, thankfully.

"Please don't shout my name," Kuroko cut them off. "That would only draw attention to me. And I can't afford that right now."

Kagami looked like he wanted to either hug him or throttle him, but knew Kuroko was right, and he couldn't afford to do either.

"How long have you been there?" he asked instead.

"Since the beginning."

"Kuroko," said Hyuga, in his clutch personality's tone.

"I joined you in the locker room at the end of the break. I've been on the bench since then. Testing a theory."

"Oh," said Riko, a sly grin spreading over her face. "I see. It's not your lack of presence disappearing that let Rakuzan see you. It was your distinctive hair color. I get it. They trained specifically to notice it. So you snuck off to dye your hair and . . . wait, where the heck did you get black contacts on such short notice?"

"That's not completely right," said Kuroko. "I didn't dye my hair. I washed the hair dye out. And I took out my colored contacts. This . . . this is the real me."

Everyone stared.

"Does Akashi know?" asked Riko.

"I don't believe so. He's never seen me like this."

Kagami glomped a hand down on top of Kuroko's head, grinning ear to ear. "This is great. He'll never see this coming. Let's put him back in, Coach!"

"No, not yet," said Kuroko quickly.

"We'll put him in at the start of the fourth quarter," Riko agreed. "That way we won't draw attention to him. If we sub him in, all eyes will be on him."

The timeout quickly ended. Seirin's team went back out. And Kuroko found himself sitting between Koganei and Furihata this time, rather than alone at the end of the bench.

"You know, Akashi really should have seen this coming," said Koganei as play began again, and, without any explainable reason that the crowd or their opponents could think of, Seirin's fighting spirit picked back up.

"What?" Fukuda asked.

"Kuroko being an ebony," Koganei said. "I mean, look at all the others in the Generation of Miracles. Their names, their hair colors, and their eye colors. Everyone else's all match up. And he never thought it was strange that Kuroko's didn't?"

"Well . . . why would he? It's not like anyone planned for things to work out that way," said Furihata. "This isn't a manga or anything."

"If there were, there'd be some really cool background music playing right now," said Kawahara.

"No, that would be if this was an anime," Koganei argued.

Kuroko kept his expression carefully blank as he listened to his teammates banter back and forth. But inside he smiled.

* * *

Akashi frowned as he realized something was different with Seirin's fourth quarter lineup. He scanned the players, taking note of each one, trying to figure out what was different. Kagami was there, grinning like a maniac. Kiyoshi too, smiling like an idiot. Hyuga had the glint of a psychopath in his eyes, and a smile that promised pain to his opponents. And Izuki, looking cool and ready for anything, though a little bit of an I-know-something-you-don't-know look was creeping into his expression. That was everyone. Wait, no. Mitobe was on the bench. So their fifth was . . . wait, what was going on?

"Sei-chan? What's wrong?" asked Kotaro.

Akashi ignored him and looked around hurriedly. The fifth man, where was he? Who was he?

Then he saw it. Even with his Emperor Eye, he'd somehow missed it at first sight. There he was, Number Eleven, hanging back just half a step away from Kagami.

But Eleven . . . that was Kuroko's number.

Akashi stormed over, not sure what was going on. But this person, this ebony-haired boy was definitely not his former teammate, and if they'd given Kuroko's number to another member of their team in the middle of a game, well the thought made Akashi angry for reasons he didn't even know.

He grabbed Number Eleven and spun the shorter player to face him. "Who are you?"

"Hey!" said Kagami, immediately angry and about to intervene.

Opaque black eyes regarded Akashi. They were set in a somewhat familiar face. Even their shape was a little familiar. But the hair framing that face was so different that it completely transformed its owner. And there was something about those eyes. Something flat and utterly forgettable. Something dead. Or not dead. Dead would have been disturbing and memorable. This was more like it had never been alive.

Then Number Eleven answered.

"I'm obviously Kuroko Tetsuya . . ." he said, his face completely blank and expressionless, but hiding untold depths of irony. " . . . Seijurou."

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Please review!


	3. Kuroko no Sherlock

Spoilers for Episode 1 of Sherlock

(This is an AU where Kuroko's hobby of people-watching evolved into the ability to do Sherlock Scans and notice details that the majority of the world would overlook. His own moral code forces him to act when he sees something wrong happening, and the boatload of psychological issues he's been carrying since middle school have been twisted too, causing him to take dangerous risks and act self destructively at times)

* * *

It was right after Seirin's third consecutive loss of the Interhigh Preliminaries when Touo and Seirin met again. Seirin had walked to a bus stop several streets from the sports complex so that they could catch a hopefully less busy bus, and all ride it together, but it seemed that Touo had the same idea.

"Well look who we have here," said one of Touo's bench warmers, who still hadn't learned how to keep his big fat mouth shut, despite nearly getting his head ripped off by Aomine when he'd suggested Kuroko would be better off giving up basketball and might have a mental disorder. "You guys sure don't look happy. Then again, neither would I if I'd just lost three games in a row."

He received some annoyed looks, but if he was annoyed none of them looked broken, he didn't show it. Instead, he started trying to edge closer to the curb to cut in front of Seirin. So did a couple other players from Touo.

"Hey, since you guys lost all your matches and we won all ours, how about you let us take the first bus?" he asked. "It's the privilege of winners after all."

Riko rounded on them angrily. "We were here first."

"Now now, no need to get angry," said Touo's captain, Imayoshi. "It was worth a try, after all."

Aomine had been hanging back, hoping to avoid a reunion with Kuroko, even though Momoi was ardently seeking one out, dancing from right to left and craning her neck, trying to spot him in the sea of players from Seirin who were all slightly taller than him.

"Your try failed, so will you kindly stop trying to cut in front of us?" Riko asked angrily.

"Yes. Of course. You can't blame us for trying, though," Imayoshi said. "Move on back, guys. Seirin wants to make a hasty retreat. We can't blame them for that either."

"HEY, LOOK OUT!" Kagami who'd been silent to that point suddenly screamed and lunged forward.

It took everyone a second to realize what had happened, but when Aomine did, his heart started thumping with anger and fear. By then it was already over, but did nothing to save him from the aftershocks.

The mouthy benchwarmer had kept trying to cut closer to the curb, in front of Seirin, and had completely failed to notice a blue haired little phantom standing at the edge. He'd jostled into him, accidentally bumping him off the curb and into the street, right into the path of an oncoming car, which didn't slow or even appear to see him.

That could have ended very badly if Kagami hadn't been watching, and if Kagami didn't have such amazing reflexes and speed. And right now Aomine would admit that he had both. He'd even admit that Kagami didn't really suck at basketball. Hell, he'd admit anything Kagami wanted him to at that moment, because the red haired returnee surged forward, right in the nick of time, grabbed Kuroko by the collar, and hauled him back onto the curb. The tail of his jacket actually brushed up against the side of the car as it was driving by.

_"You stupid fucker! What the hell do you think you're doing? Are you really such a fucking sleazeball that you're trying to kill someone?"_ Kagami screamed. But in English, so they couldn't understand everything he was saying. But his tone made it perfectly clear what he meant.

The bench warmer slunk backwards under the combined fury of Seirin, though honestly Kagami's fury alone would have been enough to make anyone back off. Everyone from Touo was cringing, really. There wasn't much they could say except:

"Hey, he didn't mean to do that," Imayoshi tried to soothe the situation.

_"Don't you even fucking start with me you twisted glasses character!"_

Without realizing what he was doing, Aomine had shoved his way through his team, to get to Kuroko, who had fallen off his feet when Kagami let go of him, and hadn't gotten up yet. He was noticibly paler than usual, and cold sweat beaded his face. Aomine was right about to reach a hand down to him to help him up despite everything that had happened, and despite the strain on their friendship because at that moment he was just really, really glad that Kuroko was alright. But then Kuroko's eyes went as wide as saucers and he jumped to his feet all on his own.

"Kagami-kun! We have to stop that car!"

His tone, an urgent, commanding one that Aomine had never heard him use before, stopped Kagami in mid swear. It seemed, much to Aomine's confusion (and slight jealousy for reasons he didn't even know) that all Kuroko's new team was familiar with this tone because they all acted like they'd heard it before.

"Which car?" Hyuga, their captain, demanded.

A basketball flew into Kuroko's hands, courtesy of a pass from Command Tower Izuki. Immediately, Kuroko sent an ignite pass, straight into the back window of a car, completely different from the one that had nearly run him over. It hit the window at high speed, shattering it.

"That one!"

Mitobe and Koganei were already running. Kagami was right behind them. All three seemed heedless of the traffic.

"What the hell are you guys doing?" demanded Wakamatsu.

"I'm sorry! But that's dangerous! Sorry!" cried Sakurai.

Seirin ignored them. Mitobe threw himself in front of the car, arms outstretched like he was blocking it in basketball, and the car screeched to a stop. Koganei jumped on top of the hood and mimic Mitobe's pose, even though the car was already stopped. Kagami rushed around to the driver's side, opened the door, and hauled the driver out.

"What now, Kuroko?"

"Please pop the trunk, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said, stepping off the curb too, now that there was a break in traffic. And Aomine noticed that several of Seirin's other freshman had moved further up the road to redirect the cars away from them. "Then please punch the driver in the face until he passes out."

"Alright, I give up. What the fuck are you guys doing?" asked Wakamatsu again.

"I hate to agree with anything that bastard says, but Tetsu, has your whole team lost their minds?" demanded Aomine.

Kuroko gave him a fleeting sideways glance, then ignored him.

He ignored him.

Kuroko ignored Aomine.

And it hurt. Aomine couldn't believe just how much.

"Tetsu-kun, what's going on?" Momoi asked, trying to grab Kuroko's arm, but he was already hurrying forward, with Izuki and Hyuga. When Kagami reached in and hit the lever to pop the trunk, Kuroko immediately threw the lid the rest of the way open. With the three of them in the way, and the rest of Seirin crowding around to get a glimpse of whatever was in the trunk, Aomine and the rest of Touo couldn't see what it was, but he couldn't help but notice the way ever member of Seirin's posture changed. They went from confused but wired, on an adrenaline high, to tense and furious. Even more than they'd been when Touo's benchwarmer almost got Kuroko killed.

"Kagami. Ignore Kuroko's last order," said Hyuga, his voice literally vibrating with fury. "And punch that bastard in the face until he _dies."_

"Stop, you're scaring her, Hyuga," Izuki said, his voice gentling and his posture changing as he made a very distinct effort to calm down. "Hey there. Are you alright? We're the good guys. We're going to take you home."

He bent down a bit, and when he straightened, he was holding a little girl. A fucking adorable little girl, with scared wide Bambi eyes, and two little twintails. Who'd been in the trunk of that fucking car.

Murmurs ran through Touo's team. Angry and disbelieving.

"What's going on? Imayoshi?" Touo's coach had arrived.

"Hello? Officer, I'd like to report a kidnapping. Or rather, I guess a thwarted kidnapping. We just found a little girl in the trunk of a car, licence plate . . ." Seirin's coach rattled off the digits, then the approximate address where they were."

"Ask them to send Detective Yagami," Kuroko requested.

"Right," Riko remembered. "Please send Detective Yagami. Tell him it's Seirin stumbling upon trouble again. He'll know what we mean."

Again?

Izuki carried the little girl back onto the curb and tried to set her down, but she clung to him and refused to let go, so he held onto her, speaking in soothing tones and making stupid puns. Seirin's upperclassmen got off the car and out of the street, leaving the halted car where it was, and the freshman got back on the sidewalk too and let traffic sort itself out. Kagami dragged the driver, and alleged kidnapper out of the road and threw him face down, firmly planting his foot on the back of the guy's neck.

"Any stupid moves and I'm going to make you eat the curb, you bastard," he warned, and everyone there could see he meant it. The kidnapper didn't even try to get up.

Aomine watched as Touo, including him, stood around dumbly, not knowing fully what had just happened and how it happened, or what they should be doing now, since they weren't involved, per say, but kind of were just by the fact that they were there. Seirin, on the other hand, seemed like they were more or less used to this kind of thing. Kagami stood guard over their prisoner, looking scary the way the avenging angel might, his foot firmly planted on their defeated enemy, making Aomine suddenly very glad that he and Kagami hadn't clashed in that way. Izuki continued to comfort the little girl, and got her feeling safe enough that when he sat down, she stopped clinging to him so tightly. She still stayed in his lap and kept a fist clenched in his shirt, but didn't cling to him with both hands. She even started laughing at his stupid puns. Seirin's coach sat down beside them and talked gently to the girl, asking her light hearted questions and getting responses, though when Touo's coach tried, maybe because he thought that was what he should do as the only actual adult in the situation, the little girl buried her face against Izuki again and started crying, earning Touo's coach glares from all of Seirin and an overly polite request from Riko to step away now please or else.

The rest of the team settled in for a wait, like they'd done this before. Something about their mostly relaxed postures, but their core of seriousness told Aomine that yes, they had done this before.

"Well, looks like you guys get your wish," Hyuga said to Imayoshi.

"What?"

"You guys can take the next bus. We're going to be stuck here for awhile, talking to the police. So what has yours drug you into?"

Imayoshi looked perplexed. "My what?"

"Your guy from the Generation of Miracles," Hyuga clarified. "Though I'm starting to think they probably should have been called the Generation of Crimebusters."

"Aomine stop crimes?" scoffed Wakamatsu. "That's a joke."

Hyuga looked surprised. "Wait, you mean to say that yours is . . . is normal?"

"Normal? No, he's a dick."

"But he doesn't . . . he doesn't go running around all over the place, stopping crimes?" Hyuga asked. "So far ours has racked up two stopped pick pocketings, thwarted a convenience store robbery, caught a fucking serial killer, and now stopped a kidnapping. And drug at least one of us into every one of those with him. And yours is letting you guys have a normal high school life?"

"Serial killer?" Momoi asked. "Tetsu-kun, what are they talking about?"

"Hey, you said the Generation of Miracles started the crime stopping stuff," Koganei accused Kuroko. "You said they stopped a purse snatching."

"They did. I didn't say anything about them doing anything since." Kuroko answered his teammate's question rather than Momoi's.

"How did you even know that bastard was a kidnapper?" Kagami asked. "Was it his left sleeve? Or was he wearing some tie that only kidnapping bastards wear?"

"I saw the little girl's hand inside the tail light, trying to reach through the plastic," said Kuroko. "It was pretty obvious what was happening."

"I'd say you were amazing . . . if not for all that crazy ass shit you pulled last night," Hyuga growled. "This doesn't make up for almost willingly swallowing poison!"

"What?" Aomine and Momoi asked in shocked unison.

"Tetsu, what the fuck are they talking about?" Aomine demanded, tired of being ignored. He strode forward to stand right in front of his former friend, to make sure that he couldn't be ignored.

"He's not telling it how it really happened," Kuroko said calmly. "I didn't almost willingly swallow poison. The one I had was a placebo."

"You don't know that!" Kagami shouted, just as angry. "Chances of it being the poison were fifty-fifty!"

"I wasn't playing the odds, I was playing the killer, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said in his usual deadpan way. "It wasn't chance. It was chess."

"And there was still a fifty percent chance of you killing yourself, idiot!"

"Tetsu, what the fuck are they talking about! Answer me!" Aomine shouted.

Kuroko looked unconcerned about everyone around him shouting at him. "It was on the news this morning. Probably. Those serial suicides that made it into the papers the past few weeks, turned out to be a serial killer. It's complicated."

"That doesn't explain why you almost willingly drank poison!" cried Momoi.

"Swallowed it not drunk it. It was in the form of pills. But the one I had wasn't the poison."

"You don't know that," Riko said, scowling at her phantom player. "You lost track of which pill was which!"

"I wouldn't have if someone hadn't shot him."

"Hey! Don't blame me for that! Think of how it looked from where I was standing, idiot!" Kagami shouted. "I thought that bastard was _making_ you swallow the poison! Obviously I was going to shoot him!"

_"Moron!_ Don't admit to that in front of _them!"_ Hyuga shouted, waving at Touo.

"Oops. Uh, I mean . . . I plead the fifth!" Kagami said frantically.

By this point all of Touo were standing there with their jaws resting on the ground.

"You're joking about this, right Tetsu?" Aomine asked. "Tell me this is all a joke."

"Don't worry, Kagami-kun. That won't hold up in court. They'd need more evidence than the testimony of random high school students who have nothing to do with anything to charge you for murder. And since we're a basketball team, it's not unusual for us to talk about shooting. They clearly misunderstood what you were saying," Kuroko said calmly. "And no, Aomine-kun. I still have no sense of humor. I can't make jokes."

"Everyone from Seirin, just shut up about what happened last night," Hyuga ordered. "We're only going to worry about one crime at a time."

"You were the one who brought it up," Kuroko deadpanned.

"And now I'm dropping it! Damn you freshman are so much more trouble than you're worth! Running around Tokyo, chasing down cabs on foot, gambling with your lives for kicks, and shooting people like you're a freaking American cowboy! I can't take you two anywhere!"

"I don't think what we did was wrong," Kuroko said, his voice growing colder, and stopping his captain's rant in its track. "I think what _they_ were doing was wrong. So I did something about it."

He looked at Aomine then.

"I'm not just going to ignore it when I see people doing something I think is wrong. Never again. No matter what."

Hyuga ruined the moment by hitting Kuroko in the back of the head. "That doesn't mean you have to willingly swallow poison!"

* * *

(What do you think? Does Kagami make a good Watson to Kuroko's Sherlock? :)

Please review!


	4. Kuroko no Kitty

(Takes place before Kise joins the team, when Haizaki's still around, Nijimura's still captain, and Kuroko's still quite new to the team)

* * *

There was an odd sound on the bus. Murasakibara noticed it first.

"Does anyone else hear a kitty?" he asked.

"What ridiculousness are you going on about now?" asked Midorima.

"Just listen," insisted Murasakibara.

The regulars all went silent and sure enough they heard it. A low, soft, purring sound. Just like a cat.

Nijimura sighed resignedly and stood. He looked specifically at the second years. "Did one of you smuggle a cat onto the bus?"

"Hey, don't look at me," said Aomine. "I'm not an animal fan."

"Why would any of us do something so stupid?" Haizaki asked.

"Could one have gotten on the bus by itself?" Murasakibara wondered.

"Cat's don't just up and wander onto buses," Nijimura said irritatedly.

"I don't think any of us would do something so troublesome as to smuggle a cat to a game, then back again, Captain," pointed out Akashi.

"Well where is that noise coming from?" demanded Nijimura.

"You have any ideas, Tetsu?" asked Aomine. "Tetsu? Oh no, did we leave him behind again?"

"No," Akashi said quickly. "I made sure he was on the bus before it departed."

"Then where . . . oh. Hey, I think we found our cat," laughed Aomine as he made a discovery.

Nijimura scowled. "Kuroko, if you've smuggled a cat in –"

"He didn't," Aomine said quickly. "Just look."

The others gathered stood and looked over, and found Kuroko curled up on his seat, against the window, fast asleep. He was holding a novel, hugging it really, against his chest in sleep. And instead of snoring, he was purring, like a cat.

(Insert anime effect of hearts being stabbed by arrows here, because of sheer kawaii overload)

Midorima pushed his glasses back up further and abruptly turned to look away. "How troublesome."

"How's that troublesome?" Aomine demanded. "He's not bothering anything."

"That noise is annoying. Someone shut him up," said Haizaki, who returned to his seat and slouched down in it.

Then Murasakibara reached for Kuroko's head.

"Don't –" Akashi started, believing, with good reason, that Mursakibara intended to lift Kuroko by his head, like he'd done every previous time Kuroko had done something to annoy him. But Akashi stopped when he saw that was not the case this time. Murasakibara put his hand gently down on Kuroko's head. And pet him. Like he really was a cat.

The purring sound Kuroko was making in his sleep grew slightly louder, and he unconsciously leaned his head into Murasakibara's touch.

"He's cute," Murasakibara said in a nearly breathless, adoring voice. "Like a kitty."

It was an adorable sight. No one could deny that. Nijimura shook his head as he turned away, muttering something about how kids from their generation were all weird. Aomine moved to the seat in front of Kuroko's, and sat in it the wrong way, turned around so that his arms were resting on the back of the seat, so he could keep watching. Akashi took the seat behind Kuroko's and mirrored Aomine's pose, leaning over the back of Kuroko's seat and likewise resting his arms on top of it. Midorima returned to his own nearby seat and tried to pretend like he wasn't watching.

"Let's keep him, Aka-chin," said Murasakibara. It wasn't the first time he'd said anything less than derogatory about Kuroko, but it was close to it. But Akashi decided to take that as a sign that Murasakibara was coming to accept Kuroko's style of playing, which was good.

"I intend to," Akashi said. "I'm the one who found him after all."

"Technically, _I_ found him," Aomine said, reaching down to pet Kuroko's head as well. "And finders keepers."

"He's not a pet, you know," said Midorima.

"Try not to be jealous about your lack of claim on him," Akashi said to Midorima with a straight face, causing Midorima to scowl.

"Who would be jealous of that?" shouted Midorima before anyone could shush him.

Suddenly the purring noise stopped.

"Hmn?" Kuroko's eyes fluttered open, and he blinked up sleepily at his three teammates who were staring down at him. Tears glittered at the corners of his eyes, which he wiped away with a loose fist. "Is something going on?"

Aomine had rapidly withdrawn his hand when it became clear Kuroko was waking up. Murasakibara had not, and continued to pet him, heedless of the fact that Kuroko was now awake.

"No, nothing's wrong, Tetsu," Aomine reassured him.

"Go on back to sleep," Akashi encouraged soothingly.

And Kuroko, still half asleep, obeyed. He hadn't even had enough consciousness to wonder why they were all staring at him, or why Murasakibara, who'd rarely ever had a kind word for him, was gently petting his head.

"You three are unbelievable," Midorima commented.

"You're just a tsundere," returned Aomine.

"Ne, Aka-chin. Can we get him a cute little collar?" asked Murasakibara.

Akashi considered, then reached down to pat Kuroko's head as well, as the small boy began purring in his sleep again. "Yes. But only if it has a bell on it."

* * *

Omake

(a few months later)

"Huh? Does anyone else hear something?" Kise asked, looking around quizzically.

"Something?" Akashi asked.

"I don't hear anything," Aomine insisted.

"I swear, I hear a noise like a cat purring."

"Kise-chin must be hearing things," decided Murasakibara, switching seats so that he was in the one where Kise had seen Kuroko sit down in before the bus started moving.

"Kurokocchi, you hear it too, right?" Kise demanded, seeking out his favorite ally.

"Kuro-chin is sleeping," Murasakibara said, shielding Kuroko from Kise's view with his own large body. "Leave him be."

"He worked hard today. Let him rest," Akashi agreed.

"Don't wake him up just for your stupid reasons," said Aomine.

Kise frowned. "Maybe it is just in my head . . ."

"It must be," Murasakibara said, and turned his back to Kise so that he was facing the window Kuroko was leaned up against.

Midorima just rolled his eyes.

* * *

Please review!


	5. Kuroko no Drift Compatible

(Pacific Rim AU)

Terminology:

Kaiju – a giant monster, like Godzilla

Jaeger – a giant robot, manned by two pilots, because the robot's movements are linked to the pilots' brains, and two pilots are needed to keep their brains from overloading because of the feedback. They share the neural strain.

Drift compatible – capable of mind-melding, or syncing up on the same mental wavelength as another pilot, in order to control a Jaeger. A rare ability.

Jaeger pilots – the team of pilots who control a jaeger. They must be drift compatible, and comfortable enough with each other to allow the other inside their head, since during the drift they share memories. Very strong bonds tend to form between pilots, or in some cases were there already. Jaeger pilots are like the new rock stars, in a world where kaiju have killed tens of thousands. They're heroes, and are held in high respect.

* * *

The Generation of Miracles reunited during what would have been their first year of college, if the world hadn't gone to hell. The appearance of kaiju, during their first year of high school had thrown their country for a loop. By their third year of high school no one really cared about things like basketball anymore. Not even the players, really. Even the ones who loved it. And the entire Generation of Miracles did love it. That was something they came to realize when they were finally pitted against each other. It had been a long road to that realization for some of them, but the journey had been worth it. All the same, their reunion was bittersweet, especially since it didn't have much to do with basketball.

Japan's branch of the Jaeger program was, by and far, kicking every other country's asses, thanks to a handful of ace pilot teams they'd found more or less by accident. It had been while training and physically conditioning the scant few drift compatible pilots that the military had been able to turn out, that the trainer in charge and his daughter had found six new pairs of them. They were all on the very young side, still in high school actually, but drift compatible was drift compatible. Then, after the appearance of a few more teams of young pilots, a pattern emerged, and the military brass realized that the vast majority of the people they found to be drift compatible were or had recently been, on sports teams with each other.

Invitations had then been sent out to the country's best high school athletes, and naturally, the Generation of Miracles had been amongst them. Preliminary training weeded out a lot of trainees, and some rudimentary tests ruled out more as even having the potential of being drift compatible, but the entire Generation of Miracles skated through, though they didn't know the others had made the cut at the time. The first time they all realized it was at Japan's Jaeger Program Headquarters, where they would be completing their training and finding out for certain if they were drift compatible, and who their partner would be. At their introductory ceremony, they each noticed that all the others were there. Their hair colors made them all stand out.

"Aominecchi! Akashicchi! Everyone!" Kise greeted them first the first chance he got. At one time the blonde's exuberance would have been a cause for annoyance. But now it was just a happy reminder that he, and they, were still alive. It was a nice change from the solemn air of defeat that had been settling over their country, and the world in general. "I'm so happy to see you all again!"

"Hey, Kise," Aomine said, slinging an arm around his shoulders.

"Ryouta. I'm glad to see you're well," said Akashi, favoring him with a rare smile.

"So you made it through to the final round too," Midorima said, pushing up his glasses.

"Huh? Aren't we missing someone?" asked Murasakibara.

There was a slightly painful pause as they all acutely felt just what was missing. Only Murasakibara seemed oblivious as to why they were down a member.

"Ah, I know. It's Kuro-chin. Where is he?" Murasakibara looked around as though expecting their sixth phantom member to materialize out of nowhere, as he had so many times in the past.

Indeed, they all caught themselves looking around, expecting to suddenly see his light blue hair and politely blank eyes, and hear him say in that endearing deadpan way he always did, "I've been here the whole time."

Of course it didn't happen. Kuroko didn't appear. The other four knew why.

"I don't think they looked as far back as middle school game records to find candidates," Akashi said to Murasakibara. "And even if they did, there wouldn't have been a substantial enough record of Tetsuya to warrant issuing him an invitation."

"Hm? Why not?" Murasakibara asked, like a child.

"He had no game record. He never scored," said Akashi.

"But didn't Kuro-chin join his high school's team?" Murasakibara asked. "I never played them, but Kuro-chin would definitely have joined his school's club."

"No," said Kise, the light in his eyes dimming a little. "He didn't join his school's team. I know this for a fact."

"But why?" Murasakibara asked. "Kuro-chin loved basketball more than anyone."

The others exchanged guilty looks.

"Oh." Murasakibara seemed to realize now too. "But he's still alive, isn't he?"

It was such a morbid question, even more so because it was a valid question to ask. So many people had died in the kaiju rampages of Tokyo alone.

"I think he's probably alright," said Kise. "He went to Seirin, remember?"

Seirin, the school where Japan's top six pilot teams, the original athlete teams, all came from. And they'd all come from the school's basketball team no less, second rate though it had been. Of course, there was no guarantee that going to that school gave you a better chance of surviving a kaiju attack, but it was better to cling to that belief than to think Kuroko might be dead.

"He did? Kuro-chin went to Seirin?" Murasakibara looked surprised. "So if he'd joined the basketball team, he might have been a pilot."

"Speaking of Seirin's team, did you guys ever play them?" asked Aomine as they reached the mess hall, where they'd been heading. The question smacked of a desperate attempt to change the conversation. They could all see on Aomine's face that talking about his former best friend was like twisting a metaphorical knife in the gaping wound that Kuroko's absence left him with.

So Kise seized the subject change immediately. "I did! I did! My first high school practice game was against them! I got to meet all of the Seirin Six! Well, twelve, if you count them as individuals rather than teams. Wait, no. I didn't meet all twelve . . . uh, it was a long time ago."

He laughed ruefully.

"I think Iron Heart Kiyoshi was recovering from injuries at the time. But I definitely met Kagami! And Hyuga, and Aida. Aida was their coach, even though she was only a high school student at the time. And Izuki, and Mitobe, and Koganei –"

"We get the point," said Midorima to shut him up.

"Okay! Well, they were pretty good. Especially for a team without any seniors. It was only their second year. I mean, we beat them, but you could tell even then, there was something about them," said Kise. "They had spirit. Kagami especially! He broke the basketball hoop by dunking! It was great!"

"I never played them," Midorima said, "But I nearly did. My first year in high school, they lost to Seihou in the preliminaries, or else we would have been matched up against them."

"Too bad," said Kise. "They were a good team. Hey, do you see them anywhere? Any of them?"

Five pairs of different colored eyes scanned the occupants of the mess hall, seeking out their country's heroes. Or specifically, the blazing red hair of the most famous one.

"I don't see them," sighed Murasakibara after a few moments of searching.

"Me neither," said Aomine, sounding equally disappointed.

"Um, excuse me?"

They turned around and saw a slightly built young man with silver hair and blue eyes looking at them earnestly.

"If you're looking for Seirin, they aren't here yet. They always play basketball before they eat. Um. One or two of them might be here, since there's twelve of them, and only ten play at a time, but usually the one who draws the short straw sticks around to watch the others. Oh, and Aida-san never plays, but always sticks around to watch and yell at them."

"I see. Thank you for letting us know," Akashi said.

"But they will be here?" asked Kise with his usual enthusiasm. "All of them?"

The silver haired boy nodded. "Probably in the next ten or fifteen minutes."

"Hey, then we'll finally get to see Kagami's co-pilot," said Kise. "The one who always refuses to go on TV or do any interviews! I wonder what he's like?"

They got their trays and scouted out an empty table, then sat down.

"This is just like old times," said Kise, smiling widely. Then the smile faltered. "Or almost just like old times. If only . . ."

"Shut up," said Aomine. Unconsciously, all their eyes went to the closest empty seat at the table, where their sixth phantom member would have been sitting if he were there . . . Then as one, all their eyes widened as they realized that empty seat really wasn't empty. A heartbreakingly familiar pair of eyes stared back at them over the rim of his milkshake tumbler, bemused.

They all stared in shock, jaws dropping, and chairs falling backwards as some of them stood in shock. Then they all spoke at once.

"Tetsu!"

"Kuroko!"

"Tetsuya!"

"Kuro-chin!"

"Kurokocchi!"

Kuroko set down his milkshake and spoke, unemotionally as always, even though there was something extra-guarded about his tone. "Hello. It's been awhile."

"You little . . . when did you get here?" demanded Aomine, slinging an arm around Kuroko's shoulders.

Kise leapt over the table to give the phantom a crushing hug, disregarding the fact that Aomine was pretty much doing that already. "Kurokocchi! You're here!"

"I've been here since the beginning," said Kuroko, in his usual deadpan voice. Then, when Murasakibara reached over to start patting him on the head, added, "Please stop."

"It's very good to see you, Tetsuya," Akashi said, a smile ghosting over his face.

"This is a pleasant surprise," agreed Midorima.

The look Kuroko gave them made them wonder if he agreed, and suddenly the weight of three and a half years of silence after an unresolved argument started settling down on their shoulders.

"Everyone! I have something important to say!" Kise spoke up, frantically. "I call dibs on Kurokocchi as my co-pilot!"

"What, you can't do that!" shouted Aomine.

"I wanted Kuro-chin," Murasakibara said, reaching for Kuroko's head again, but Kuroko batted his hand away before he could touch him this time. Kuroko's expression didn't change, per say, but something was different now about the air around him.

Uncomfortable silence settled over the table, as they began to realize that apologies, or at least explanations were in order. All the others had seen each other in the years since they left Teiko. Never all together, except that one meeting before their first Winter Cup, but meeting up in twos and threes, on the court and off has led to mended friendships between all of them. But Kuroko, who hadn't been around, had been left out, and it occurred to them now that he missed out on far too much to just expect him to catch up so quickly.

"So, uh, when did you get here, Tetsu?" Aomine asked, deciding to take small steps. "You should have said something when you sat down."

"I was sitting here first. You sat down at my table," Kuroko said emotionlessly.

"Oh. Er, sorry."

"Still keeping a low profile, I see," said Midorima. "Same as always."

Akashi seemed to be weighing his next words carefully. "There's nothing wrong with that, of course. Out of all of us . . . you were the only one who didn't need to change."

Kuroko stared at them blankly.

"The rest of us . . ." Akashi looked at his former teammates, then back at Kuroko, forcing himself to maintain eye contact. "We . . ."

"Uh, hey? New guys?"

They all looked up to see Kiyoshi Teppei, one of the copilots of Iron Heart, looking at them uneasily.

"Sorry, about this . . . there's no polite way to say it, and no matter what, it's going to sound like I'm just trying to give you a hard time, but I swear I'm not trying to . . . but this is our table," Kiyoshi said, looking embarrassed. "One of the veteran pilots' tables. Specifically, this is where the Seirin Six always eat."

"Does it matter that much?" asked Murasakibara. "There's other free tables."

"Yeah, but they're not our table," Kiyoshi said. "I know I'm being really rude, even if you are just trainees, but you're athletes too. You know how superstitious we can be, and the last time we switched tables RimFire got an arm ripped off, and Clutch Time got a hull breach while they were underwater."

"Of course we'll move," said Akashi, speaking for them all. Aomine and Kise had even picked up their trays the moment Kiyoshi hinted that he wanted them to leave, respecting Iron Heart's reputation. Now Midorima and Murasakibara didn't seem to have any arguments about relinquishing the table either. Only Kuroko remained seated. "Come, Tetsuya."

"I'm staying here."

Before any of them could react, Kuroko was slapped in the back of the head, none too gently.

"Hey!" Aomine dropped his tray and started toward the person who'd hit his former best friend. But when he saw who it was, he hesitated.

"Idiot," Kagami Taiga, ace of the Seirin Six, and copilot of RimFire, the Jaeger with the highest kill count, said, glaring down at Kuroko. "How many times do I have to tell you, you can't live off milkshakes?"

"At least once more," Kuroko said, not even bothering to look up at him.

Kagami sighed and dropped a burger down in front of him.

"Eh, you really shouldn't live off hamburgers either, Kagami," said Kiyoshi, taking a seat on one side of Kuroko.

"I eat other stuff," Kagami said, dismissively. Then he clamped a hand down on top of Kuroko's head and glared at the Generation of Miracles. "What are all of _them_ doing at our table, Kuroko?"

"They thought this table was free and sat down," Kuroko said. "But Kiyoshi-senpai just explained our situation to them. They don't want us to die horribly, so they're moving to another table."

He touched his left arm just below the elbow, unconsciously, and the others saw Kagami do the same, his fingers curling into a fist like he was remembering some phantom pain. Some of the Generation of Miracles realized then, what was going on. Probably all of them. But they still wanted it spelled out.

"Wait a second . . . What . . . Kurokocchi's . . ." Kise gaped at their shadow . . . who it seemed was no longer their shadow. Kagami was glaring at them like he loathed them. Or like he knew everything that had happened between them and Kuroko. He was looking at them the way they would have looked at someone who'd hurt Kuroko the way they had . . . if they hadn't been the ones who'd hurt him themselves.

Akashi remembered then, what they'd been told about the drift. How it was called such, because the two copilots drifted into each other's minds and memories. It was entirely possible that Kagami had learned everything about what had happened between them without Kuroko ever saying a word about it.

"Tetsu, are you . . ." Aomine didn't seem quite capable of believing it either.

Kuroko stood suddenly, his expression changing to one that the Generation of Miracles had never seen cross his face before. It was almost like the one he wore while playing basketball, but there was more emotion in it. If they didn't know any better, they'd say that his expression was one of savage glee. "We're up."

"What?" Kise said.

They had just enough time to see the same savage smiles spread across Kiyoshi's face, and the faces of several other members of the Seirin Six who'd come over with their own dinner trays, before there was a wailing siren over the PA system that couldn't fail to get everyone's attention. It was followed by a voiced message.

"Kaiju alert. Pilots Kagami, Kuroko, Koganei, and Mitobe report to the battle bridge immediately."

"Alright! We're up, Mitobe!" Koganei crowed, quickly putting his tray down in a specific spot at the table then, jumping into the air. "Let's go armor up!"

Akashi couldn't take his eyes off the cruel but excited smile on Kuroko's innocent face. "How did you know?"

"There's a kind of electric crackle three seconds before the siren," explained Izuki. "A couple of us can hear it, so we get a few extra seconds heads up."

"Come on, Kagami-kun," Kuroko said, already moving to follow after Mitobe and Koganei, and damn if he wasn't glowing with excitement. But his voice was as cool as ever. "Let's go kill another kaiju."

Just like that, Kuroko seemed to have forgotten all about them. Kagami had as well. The same dark expression was on his face, but while on Kuroko it was disturbing, on Kagami it was downright terrifying. At that moment the Generation of Miracles could easily see how he was humanity's ace. None of them would want to be a kaiju right then.

"Engine on," Kagami said, holding his hand out and bumping fists with Kuroko as they moved toward the door.

The Generation of Miracles watched as Kuroko and Kagami left the mess hall, not quite running, but not walking either. No one failed to notice how their steps matched up, as they watched the boy who was no longer their shadow move further away from them.

* * *

Please Review!


	6. Kuroko no Free

(Free! AU)

Warning, spoilers for the entire Free! Iwatobi Swim Club series

(I meant to keep this regular size, but it kind of turned into a monster-length oneshot. Obviously, most of these aren't going to be nearly this long, lol)

* * *

Kuroko left Tokyo. He couldn't stand it there anymore. Everything there reminded him of everything he'd lost. Teammates, friends, and the thing he loved more than anything else: basketball. His past chained him. The only way to move on was to start completely fresh.

He ended up at Iwatobi High by literally throwing a dart at a map.

Fate must have guided his shot.

There was a basketball club at Iwatobi, but it was nothing special. None of the clubs were especially strong. It was a small school, on the coast. And it was, conveniently, far enough away from all the schools where the Generation of Miracles were going that he wouldn't have to worry about coincidental meetings. So it was a good place to hide.

He was invisible again, drifting along in a sea of students who meant no more to him than any random person at Teiko, and to whom he meant absolutely nothing to. He told himself that was the way he liked it.

Then the swim club formed.

Kuroko wasn't a good swimmer. He was never good at anything involving strength and stamina. He knew how to swim, yeah, but he wasn't even average at any of the styles.

But the swim club needed members to get off the ground.

At first Kuroko decided it wasn't his problem. He was actually a little bit insulted. Hazuki Nagisa, who sat right in front of him in class, asked every single person in the room except for him. He knew it was hypocritical of him, to want to be both overlooked, but at the same time, not be overlooked. But it saved him the hassle of rejecting Hazuki-kun outright.

Then he met Nanase Haruka.

"Hey. Join the swim club."

Kuroko blinked. "Are . . . you talking to me?"

"Yes. Join the swim club and I'll give you this." A keychain was held out to him, of an insanely cute penguin carved out of wood. It was a tempting offer. But Kuroko resisted.

"I don't swim very well. I'm sorry, senpai."

"You'll get better."

"I really won't."

"Please."

Something in his voice reached Kuroko and kept him from flat out turning Haru down.

"We need one more person to form the club. Otherwise we can't swim."

And Kuroko realized what that something was. Love. Nanase Haruka loved swimming from the bottom of his heart, the way Kuroko had once loved basketball. Could Kuroko really stand in his way?

"I'll think about it."

The next day he turned in his application to join the swim club. (And got the penguin key chain)

* * *

It turned out that the swim club got two new members. Ryuugazaki Rei was also more or less conscripted by Hazuki-kun, who insisted on being called Nagisa, and threw fits whenever Kuroko called him Hazuki-kun to the point where sticking with the formalities wasn't worth it anymore. He gave in to allowing Nagisa to call him Tetsu-chan, figuring it was no worse than Kuro-chin or Kurokocchi. To everyone else, he became Tetsuya, which he guessed was alright.

Tachibana Makoto, their captain, was very kind. Matsuoka Gou, their manager, was bubbly but intelligent and caring. And Rei was finicky but a decent guy all the same. But Haru . . . he was something else. It wasn't that he wasn't nice, or smart, or decent. It was more like he was only half there, at any given time. And the other half was somewhere else where no one else could reach him.

He treated Kuroko with more respect than the others, except Makoto. Kuroko thought it was probably because Haru knew Kuroko had only joined so that he would be able to do what he loved. Haru showed his appreciation in small but definite ways, giving him a slight smile where others would only get a blank look, or bringing extra mackerel and forcing it on Kuroko, who would have skipped lunch altogether or just drunk the half melted vanilla shake purchased before school started.

They weren't quite friends . . . but Kuroko thought they might get there.

* * *

Almost immediately, however, Kuroko realized that there was another agenda to the swim club than just swimming. There was history here. There were problems. And they seemed to largely revolve around Gou's big brother, one Matsuoka Rin.

Kuroko hadn't spent years watching people for nothing. From their first meeting, at the joint practice with Samezuka, Kuroko was able to size up the situation. Something had happened between Haru and Rin. Rin resented Haru for it. They'd been friends once. They being Haru, Rin, Makoto, and Nagisa. Makoto and Nagisa were stung by Rin's actions now. Gou was worried for her brother. And Rin resented both Kuroko and Rei at first glance.

Kuroko was indifferent to that. Rin couldn't possibly loathe him anymore than he loathed himself.

But fixing things with Rin seemed very important to Haru, Makoto, Nagisa, and Gou. And Kuroko could empathize with that. He was no stranger to fractured friendships. There had been nothing he'd been able to do, with everyone falling apart. But here . . . maybe he could help his new team fail where he himself had failed with his old one.

* * *

There were ups and downs, just like in anything else. And there was a lot of hard work to be done. Rei had to be taught to swim, though Kuroko had no idea why someone who couldn't swim would join a swim club. Then there was practice, practice, and more practice. Everyday Kuroko drug himself home, exhausted from so much effort, but realized that he was getting into better shape than he'd ever been in playing basketball. His muscles, though lacking compared to his teammates, had developed like a swimmer's now, rather than a basketball player's. Their tone was better now, and his stomach and back were stronger too. Or maybe it was more like his training now strengthened all his muscles much more evenly, instead of just in his arms and legs, like most basketball conditioning they'd done at Teiko had been geared toward.

Still, Kuroko's times didn't improve much. He was near his limit, and he knew it. He'd never be great. He'd never even be much above average. But he was alright with that, because this was more fun than he thought it'd be, and his teammates were becoming his friends, just as dear to him as the ones he lost, and he got to see that look in Haru's eyes, that reminded him of how Aomine used to look while playing basketball, and even though it made his heart hurt, it also made him happy.

Then Gou came up with a wild idea for Kuroko's training.

"Have you ever heard of free diving, Tetsuya?" she asked on the roof at lunch one day.

Kuroko shook his head.

"It's kind of like scuba diving, but without the scuba. You go as deep as you can, or stay down as long as you can on just one breath of air," Gou explained. "I think you might be good at it."

"Huh? Why would Tetsu-chan be good at something like that?" Nagisa asked.

"Well, from the data I've gathered, I've noticed that Tetsuya's heart rate doesn't increase as much as everyone else's, even when he swims his hardest. So, theoretically, he's making due with less oxygen than the rest of you. And free diving seems to be all about swimming with the minimum amount of oxygen," said Gou. "If this works, with the right training, he'll be able to stay underwater for several minutes on just one breath."

"Are you sure that's safe?" asked Haru. It was rare for him to speak, and even moreso to question the safety of anything swimming related, so Kuroko felt oddly pleased to realize his senpai was concerned for him.

"Well, it is an extreme sport. But the danger's no greater than playing contact sports. I haven't done a whole lot of research on it yet, but I thought I'd see if Tetsuya was interested," said Gou.

"I would like to learn more," Kuroko said, without quite knowing why. He didn't quite understand what the point of free diving was, but somehow he liked the idea of it.

* * *

Gou came back with more research, and Kuroko did some of his own, and the more he learned, the better it sounded. They did some tests. Kuroko was surprised to find how well he was able to make it work. He could stay submerged under the water's surface, holding his breath far longer than any of the others could. Even longer than Haru could, and Haru was the best of them at all things water related. But thankfully Haru didn't get competitive, or angry. He just gave Kuroko a look, like he understood something that Kuroko had yet to figure out.

It didn't take Kuroko long to figure out what that look was for.

After his second week of free diving training, they had him do a test, to stay under water on one breath as long as he possibly could.

He managed to stay at the bottom of the pool for three and a half minutes.

And then he understood.

He understood what it was about the water that was calling Haru, though he couldn't quite put it into words. But there was a beauty to it, and somehow it had gotten inside of him, and it was like basketball had once been, except stronger because this was something he was good at. It wasn't dependent on anyone else. This gift was his, given to him only by the water, almost like it was the water that had chosen him as one of its favored few, and no one could take this away from him. It made Kuroko feel a sense of euphoria which, scientifically could probably be chalked up to oxygen deprivation doing funny things to his brain, but he didn't really believe that, and even if that was the case he wouldn't have cared.

"You get it, don't you?" Haru asked, out of the blue, in the locker room.

"Yes," Kuroko said simply. That was all that needed to be said.

* * *

That was just the beginning. Kuroko kept swimming laps with the others half of every practice, to stay in as good of shape as he possibly could, but Gou also put together a regiment just for him, that he worked on for the other half. Soon he was able to do multiple dives, and the amount of time he could stay under the water increased. By the time their summer training camp started, he could stay under for almost five minutes.

* * *

Summer training camp didn't go as planned. Rin's school ended up being at the beach they'd gone to, but using the nearby sports facility, instead of swimming in the ocean like the Iwatobi Swim Club was. It was a big coincidence but Kuroko found he wasn't surprised. This just reminded him of how it had been with the Generation of Miracles. They attracted each other, somehow. Where one went, chances of a second being there greatly increased, and if two were there, chances of a third arriving were even greater.

He almost forgot that he too had been part of the Generation of Miracles, and it seemed the Miracles still attracted each other. But he got a reminder his second day of camp, after a first day spent swimming with his teammates from island to island, and a night spent trying not to drown, hoping no one else drowned, and being cold and uncomfortable. But that night had been worth it. That night brought them closer together, and something subtly changed with their team's dynamics, like puzzle pieces snapping into place to form one picture. He got closer to his teammates, but he supposed near death experiences tended to do that to people.

But his second day, he stayed back at their camp sight during the afternoon while the others went swimming from island to island again. He wanted to try free diving in the ocean, and Haru agreed it would be alright, and convinced Makoto, who'd been apprehensive.

He noticed some people jogging on the beach as he descended beneath the waves off the coast, but didn't think much of them. He didn't expect them to even notice him. But after only three minutes below the water, resting on his back on the ocean floor, watching the fish swim by and the sunlight dancing on the water's surface, a silhouetted figure swam into his field of vision, and the next thing Kuroko knew, he was being bodily hauled back to the surface.

"I've got you, kid!" said his "rescuer" as they breached the water's surface. "Don't die on me!"

"What are you doing?"

His rescuer was a teen with grayish blue eyes, black hair, and a voice that, for some strange reason, reminded him of Makoto's. He looked at Kuroko, surprised, panting slightly from exertion. "Wow, you're still breathing. That's good. I thought for sure we'd have to do mouth to mouth, and you'd be mostly dead."

"Takao! You got him?" shouted someone else nearby. Kuroko saw that there was one other person in the water with them, and a handful more on the beach, including a familiar green haired figure with glasses.

Midorima recognized Kuroko at the exact same time, and started frantically forward. _"Kuroko!"_

"Eh?"

_"Kuroko! _Takao! Is he hurt? Is he breathing?"

Midorima's entrance into the water was far from graceful. Kuroko actually felt a little bit of disdain watching him fight against the water and the waves.

"Midorima-kun?" called Kuroko. "What's going on?"

The other person in the water was close enough to speak easily to. "You don't look like someone who's nearly just drowned."

"No. Because I didn't."

"But after Takao started raising a fuss about someone going under, we watched the water. You didn't come up for air. And what is Midorima doing?"

Kuroko managed to pull away from Takao, and swam toward Midorima, reading the current and going with it, rather than fighting it. Both Takao and the other teen tried to keep up with him, but he left them far behind. Perhaps all that time spent swimming laps had paid off after all.

"Midorima-kun?"

"Kuroko!" Midorima grabbed his arm so hard, Kuroko was sure he'd have a bruise. "What the hell were you doing? Why are you swimming alone? Why were you under so long? How are you alive?"

"I'm sorry to have worried you, Midorima-kun," said Kuroko. "But I wasn't in any danger. I was free."

"What?"

"Free diving," Kuroko amended.

"What?" Midorima repeated.

"It's like scuba diving but without the scuba," said Kuroko, borrowing from how Gou described it.

"Are you insane?" Midorima looked like he'd like to drown Kuroko now. He dragged him back to the shore and demanded a full explanation, which was embarrassing because they had an audience of Midorima's whole team, as well as another group of people who looked like they might be a basketball team too, who'd drifted over from a game of basketball they'd been playing in the sand. Personally, Kuroko thought they deserved to be asked if they were insane more than him, trying to play basketball in the sand.

"That is the most stupid thing I've ever heard of, Kuroko! Do you want to die?"

"Stop yelling at the kid already," spoke up the lone female of the other group.

"Riko, maybe you should stay out of this?" suggested one of the others from her team.

But Riko went on anyway. "He's not wrong about free diving. It is possible. And damn . . . all the muscles connected to your respiratory system are perfect for it. But you really should have someone with you, Kuroko-kun, just in case something happens."

"I'm fine alone."

"You are not fine alone!" shouted Midorima, giving him a rough shake. "You are going to drown!"

"Hey! What the hell is going on?" called a semi-familiar voice.

Oh. Great. It seemed that Kuroko didn't just have the power to attract other Miracles, but now also other powerful swimmers as well, because Samezuka had decided to go for a jog on the beach.

"Hello, Matsuoka-san," Kuroko deadpanned.

And then for reasons he didn't understand at all, Rin edged between him and Midorima, detaching Midorima's hands from his shoulders, glaring like a devil, and sneering to reveal his pointy shark-like teeth.

When the dilemma was explained, Rin looked at Kuroko like he thought Kuroko might be insane too, but when Kuroko told him Haru and Makoto both accepted that he was fine alone, he backed Kuroko, much to Kuroko's surprise, though he didn't let it show on his face. And Mikoshiba stuck with him too.

"Gou-kun has been telling me about it in her emails. Who would have thought free diving's a real thing? But it is, and this kid can do it. I think it's cool!" Mikoshiba's slap to Kuroko's back made Kuroko stagger.

"So why don't all of you just back off?" said Rin, giving Midorima a particularly scary look. "This clearly doesn't concern anyone who's not a swimmer, so stay out of it."

* * *

Kuroko didn't see Midorima again that summer. He did make friends with a few people from the other basketball club who'd been at the beach that day, particularly one guy who kept running back and forth across the beach all day long. Kagami-kun obviously didn't remember their one kind-of meeting when he'd given Kuroko a few words of encouragement, during his darkest days at Teiko, but Kuroko didn't expect him to. But he noticed that Kagami always seemed to be keeping an eye out for him while he was running, which reconfirmed what he'd already believed, that Kagami was a good person.

He remembered how he'd considered going to Seirin. And now he wondered if he could have been happy if he'd gone there too. It took him by surprise to realize how happy he was now.

He should have known it was too good to last.

* * *

The tournament that the others had been training so hard for came, and the first day was filled with disappointment. Kuroko hadn't had any hopes of moving from prefecturals to regionals, but had believed firmly that at least one of his teammates would qualify. But none of them did. And worse, Haru lost to Rin, who suddenly reverted to acting more like a shark than a human, and said something that startled Haru so much that even from the stands, Kuroko felt a terrible wrenching in his chest, and he knew something had happened to Haru in that moment. Something really bad, and that damn it, it was happening again. It was about to start hurting, and his team was going to break apart, and it wasn't fair because everything had finally been going so good, and he'd actually thought it would keep being good. But now it was falling apart.

Then Akashi showed up.

"That was a pathetic performance, Tetsuya."

Kuroko stared at him, keeping his face carefully blank.

"Ne, Tetsu-chan? Who's this?" Nagisa asked.

"An old teammate. Will you please excuse us for a few minutes?"

The others were wary. They could feel the change in the atmosphere after Akashi's appearance, and it probably didn't help that Akashi bore such a strong resemblance to Rin, who none of them were happy at during that moment.

"We need to head home soon, Tetsuya," Makoto said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Is this important?"

But by that he meant "Are you alright?"

"Yes," answered Kuroko. "I'll meet you in the parking lot."

"What were you thinking?" asked Akashi once they were gone. "Quitting basketball to join a swim club? Have you no pride at all?"

Kuroko tried to figure out if Akashi had spoken with Midorima, so he'd know just how bad a lecture he was in for, but he hadn't heard enough to tell yet. Hopefully the other Miracles weren't in contact. He was not in the mood to listen to Akashi lecturing him about the threats of drowning himself.

"Why do you object, Akashi-kun?" asked Kuroko. "It has nothing to do with you."

"You make us all look bad when you make a weak showing," said Akashi. "And you and your team today were all disgraceful. I'm disappointed in you, Tetsuya."

"You came a very long way to tell me that. I hope it was worth the trip," Kuroko deadpanned.

"Do you think I'm joking, Tetsuya?"

"I still have no sense of humor, so I wouldn't know," Kuroko reminded him.

"I want to know why you are not in the basketball club," said Akashi. "Every other one of us joined the strongest team we could, to compete against one another. Are you really so weak that you no longer have the strength to stand on the same court as us?"

I'm not weak, Kuroko wanted to protest. I can hold my breath for almost six minutes. I can scuba dive without scuba gear. I can understand how the water is alive, and how it moves, and I can feel it in a way that I could never feel basketball. I might not be the fastest swimmer, but I can go deeper and stay under longer than anyone here today. I'm not weak!

Except he was.

"I gave up," said Kuroko softly. "On basketball. And on you. All of you."

And by admitting that, he saw just how weak he really was.

"You gave up on us? Wasn't it the other way around?" said Akashi cruelly.

"Maybe it was the other way too. But not only that way," said Kuroko. "In the end, I didn't belong on the team anymore. I don't have the right to stand on the same court as you."

Uncertainty crossed Akashi's eyes at Kuroko's acquiescence. He hadn't been expecting this, Kuroko realized. Now he was probably wondering if Kuroko was mocking him, or just agreeing with what he said to get rid of him easier.

But that wasn't the case.

"I can't change the past," Kuroko said. "But I will not make the same mistake again."

Then Kuroko ran. Not from his past, but toward his future. He needed to find Haru.

* * *

It turned out they had one more chance. One final chance. Gou had secretly signed them up for a medley relay, but it all depended on whether or not Haru would swim. And when Haru agreed, Kuroko's heart soared, even though he wasn't on the relay team. He didn't care about that. He cared that Haru's eyes weren't dark and lifeless anymore.

And when their team won the relay, his eyes were as bright as the sun. When Kuroko looked at them, he thought they looked the way his team in Teiko out to have looked after winning a game, or the championships, even though they'd never looked that happy. It made him wonder a little bit if it really had been his fault for giving up. He didn't want to think that there hadn't been anything worth fighting for there, but . . . well, this was different. This was definitely worth fighting for.

Which was good, because there was still some fighting left to do. Haru was still a little lost. Whatever Rin had said to him had shaken him to his core, and he needed more than just one win to put him back to rights. He needed his friends.

They went to a festival together, and Kuroko found himself remembering another summer festival, with different friends. It was nostalgic, but when Nagisa and Rei spotted Rin and Nitori, another swimmer from Samezuka, the festival stopped being just a festival and became a mission. Nagisa wanted Rei to shadow Rin and text them updates about where he was going, to make sure Rin and Haru wouldn't meet. Kuroko overruled that proposal and went himself. No one was better at shadowing than he was.

He succeeded in his part of the mission, but Nagisa got caught by Haru and ratted them all out. But Haru took it alright. In fact, learning about it seemed to be what made Haru alright. He finally opened up. He talked to them. Well, he talked to Makoto, but they came in time to overhear the tail end of the conversation. And then Kuroko knew everything was going to be alright. No, better than alright. They were going to Regionals.

* * *

What happened at Regionals was . . . well it . . . well, Kuroko didn't even know. But if he had to describe it in one word, he'd have chosen perfect.

It was victory pure and simple. And what they had to show for it at the end was far better than a championship title or trophy. It was what Kuroko had missed at the end of middle school.

He didn't mind essentially being a bench warmer. It didn't matter that it wasn't him in the water during the race. Or the official consequences and reprimands that came because of their impulsiveness. What mattered was that everything was put right, and that they all loved what they were doing completely and absolutely.

Akashi would have blown a gasket, but that just made it more perfect to Kuroko.

* * *

Summer turned to fall, but just before it got too cold to swim outdoors anymore, Gou came running to Kuroko ecstatically waving a page on information about a freediving competition in Tokyo she'd printed off on her computer.

The club's budget was strained, since they managed to scrape together just enough funding for them to swim at a gym's indoor pool over the winter months, so Kuroko made the trip to Tokyo alone, but he was alright with that. Really. It was senseless for the whole team to come all that way just to watch him hold his breath underwater, when they saw him do that every single practice. And Kuroko's parent's apartment was too small to accommodate them all, even though his grandmother was the only one home.

It was a nice visit. Tokyo hadn't changed at all. But Kuroko had changed a lot. And he was fine with that. He liked the person he'd become.

He ran into Kagami-kun again at Maji Burger. He felt a little bad, almost making the basketball player choke when he realized Kuroko was sitting right in front of him. Kagami acted annoyed, but Kuroko could tell his heart wasn't in it, and soon they were talking casually, like old acquaintances, if not friends. Kagami did most of the talking, but when Kuroko did speak up, he listened.

"So free diving is a real thing? And there's a contest for it? Really?" he asked, after getting Kuroko to tell why he was in Tokyo.

"Yes," Kuroko said simply. Because he'd just said all that and it didn't seem worth repeating.

"I can't believe you can hold your breath for multiple minutes," Kagami said, looking almost ill at the thought. "That's just madness. Why do you do it?"

There was no way to explain the feeling of perfect peace he got, lying under the water, or the euphoria that accompanied it, so Kuroko didn't even try. "I enjoy it. Like you enjoy basketball. There's a thrill to it, just like when you're in the middle of a match and everything is going right."

"Hm. Well, I can respect that. I can't get it for holding your breath underwater, but I can understand what you mean about that thrill," said Kagami.

Kuroko learned what was going on in high school basketball across Japan, then. He could have found out on the internet, if he'd bothered to look, but he never had. Rakuzan, where Akashi-kun went, won Interhigh. Touo, where Aomine-kun attended won second. Shutoku and Kaijou, where Kise had gone, were both knocked out of the tournament earlier on. Murasakibara's team had made it pretty far, but lost to Akashi's team, even though neither of the miracles played in their teams' game against each other.

All in all, it didn't seem like anything there had changed. Kuroko couldn't help but feel disappointed.

"Seirin's going to win Winter Cup, though," Kagami declared. "I'm dragging the Generation of Miracles down one by one."

"I wish you the best of luck," Kuroko said. And he did. He may have given up on his old friends, but that didn't mean he didn't have any hope for them anymore. There was nothing he could do to change them back to who they'd once been, but maybe someone else could help them. Maybe Kagami could.

* * *

Kuroko won the juniors division in the free diving competition. He outlasted all his competitors by over a minute, and achieved a new personal best. It wasn't the same kind of high that just being a part of his school's swim club had given him while his teammates were swimming in a relay, but it was still a great feeling.

But even the blazing smile on his face wasn't bright enough to get him noticed. While walking through the subway, someone crashed into him from behind and nearly knocked him down on the steps as he was exiting the underground part.

"Ah! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't see you there! I'm worthless! And I'm sorry I'm worthless!"

Kuroko stared at the other teen in surprise at this litany, but quickly tried to reassure him. "It's alright."

"Oh! Tetsu-kun!"

Kuroko snapped his gaze to Momoi, then to Aomine who stood with her, looking bored until he heard Kuroko's name. The former best friends' met each other's gazes. There was little friendly about their expressions now. Kuroko's was carefully blank. Aomine's was . . . annoyed? Upset? He didn't seem happy to see him, that was for sure.

"Tetsu-kun!" Momoi tried to squeeze the life out of him. "I've missed you so much! Where have you been? I've checked every basketball team's roster in Japan but you weren't on any of them!"

"I don't play basketball anymore," said Kuroko.

"Awww." Momoi sounded genuinely heartbroken. "Tetsu-kun . . ."

"I found something else," Kuroko said, hoping that would cheer her up. He might not be in love with her, but neither did he like to see her so sad.

"Oh? What?"

"I'm in the Iwatobi Swim Club."

"Swimming, Tetsu?" sneered Aomine. "I can't see you in a Speedo."

Momoi's eyes grew wide and her face flushed as she pressed her hands to her cheeks. "Tetsu-kun in a Speedo . . . !"

"I don't wear a Speedo." Stop imagining it! was what he wanted to shout.

"Why are you wearing goggles right now?" asked Aomine.

Honestly, Kuroko had forgotten he was still wearing them, but now touched them where they hung around his neck self consciously. "Because –"

"Hey! Kuroko!"

They turned to see Kagami.

"It is you," said Kagami, sounding pleased to have been able to pick him out of a crowd. He very deliberately ignored the players from Touo. "How was the free diving competition?"

"I won my division," Kuroko told him, unable to stop a proud smile from crossing his face. And why should he? He rarely had cause to use misdirection these days, except when he wanted to follow Haru's lead and slip away from everyone else, so that he could go swimming in a fountain or goldfish pool or something. There was nothing wrong with showing more emotions, was there? Especially when he was happy so often now.

"Free diving?" asked Momoi.

"Competition?" asked Aomine.

"How long did you hold your breath for this time?" Kagami asked, ignoring them both.

Kuroko's smile grew a little wider. "Six minutes, twelve point seven seconds."

"Bullshit," Aomine broke the silence.

"It's not." Kuroko said.

"Check with your green haired friend if you don't believe him, moron," said Kagami, immediately backing Kuroko, which was nice. "He saw Kuroko go under and not come up, and completely flipped out at the beach, while we were all at training camps."

That wasn't exactly how it happened, but Kuroko didn't call him out.

"I don't recall asking you to join this conversation, asshole."

"Kagami-kun is my friend," said Kuroko. Because it was only fair to back Kagami in return. "I enjoy him being part of this conversation."

"I'm sorry that I'm interrupting, and I'm sorry I'm here, but how is it possible to hold your breath that long?" asked the apologetic one.

Kuroko tried to explain about low CO2 levels in his blood, and how he could slow his heartbeat to use less oxygen but could see no one got it. He could tell Aomine didn't even believe him, which hurt, and even Momoi was doubtful. But Kagami shook his head in amazement.

"I don't get how you're not dead after that, but whatever. Let's go get something to eat." He clamped a hand down on Kuroko's shoulder and steered him away from the students from Touo.

* * *

Despite their run in, nothing changed with Aomine. Not that he expected it to. Kuroko had given up on that long ago, and though he still regretted it, he had nothing new to try to bring back his friend.

He went home, to Iwatobi, where practices continued over the winter. He didn't bother following Winter Cup. If he had, he'd have seen that all his friends were toppled from their thrones. Even Akashi. Especially Akashi. His fall from grace had probably hurt the worst. But Kuroko didn't know that.

Winter turned back to spring, and the cheery blossoms bloomed again. And when the new term of school started, and Kuroko went back to Iwatobi High as a second year, he was startled to realize how different things were from last year. Not his classes or his year rank, but him, and his team, and his friends.

Rin was one of them now. Well, he still went to Samezuka, but he was one of their group of friends, even if he wasn't a member of their team. Rei wasn't so fussy, and was much less reserved. Haru spoke more and smiled more. He and Rin had both found what they were looking for, that missing piece they needed to fix themselves. Makoto was mostly the same. If there was one significant thing different about him now, it was that he was happier. That made sense. His friends were all happy and together again, and his family was whole.

Kuroko had changed too. His dark days at Teiko were nothing but a fleeting memory. His old friends and who they used to be, a fonder one, but a memory still. He was living in the present now, with his new friends. Like Haru, he smiled more now, and spoke more too. Nagisa wouldn't let him stay quietly in the shadows, Rei demanded that Kuroko suffer alongside him if he had to deal with Nagisa, Makoto doted on him just the same as he did the rest of the team, and he was never invisible under Haru's watchful eye.

He was happy again. And this time he wasn't worried about anything ruining it.

* * *

Then Kuroko almost lost it all. Not just his friends, but his life, when he took a huge risk.

And he'd have done it again without a second thought.

It was a Friday afternoon, and there was no practice, so he was on his way to a nearby city, since their bookstore was larger than any in Iwatobi, and Kuroko had run out of things to read. The bus he was on was driving across a bridge over the bay, when the car in front of them stopped dead. The driver of his bus swerved around the stalled car, the side of the bus scraping the side of the bridge. There was a school bus right behind them. The driver of that bus didn't fare as well. His bus rammed right through the side of the bridge and plummeted into the ocean.

It was a horrible situation, any way you looked at it. When the driver of the bus Kuroko was on pulled over to the side and stopped, Kuroko, along with everyone else, got out and ran to the side of the bridge to stare down at the water, hoping and praying to see survivors begin to appear. None did.

So Kuroko did something stupid. No, he didn't pull out his cell phone and start recording the incident like some jerk beside him was. He stripped off his jacket, shirt, and pants (because somewhere along the line he'd started copying Haru and wearing his swim trunks under his clothes . . . don't ask why) flipped off his shoes, and leapt down into the water. Jumping from so high up hurt when he hit the water, but he pushed the pain aside and did what he did best. He dove.

The bus was sinking fast, and as Kuroko drew closer to it, he could see there were children on board. Several of the windows were busted wide open, letting water in. Kuroko used that as his point of entry to get inside the bus and quickly took stock of the situation. There were fifteen children, kindergarteners by the looks of them. And there was the bus driver, who was unconscious, slumped at the wheel.

Kuroko managed to call the kids to order, and by some miracle they listened to him. He found out that only two among them could swim. He took those two out first, promising the others he would be right back for them, and having them take off their shoes in the meantime, to save time for when he got back.

Only when he got the first two kids up to the surface, he realized that he didn't know what he was going to do with them. The beach was several hundred meters off. There was no getting them back up on the bridge. He didn't know what to do. He needed a miracle.

He got one.

"Rin-senpai, don't! It's dangerous!"

"It's fine, Ai!"

Then a flash of red and black fell from the sky and splashed into the water. A moment later, Rin surfaced. "Tetsuya!"

"Rin-senpai! There are thirteen more. And the bus driver. And the bus is sinking fast."

Rin nodded, seeing the hopelessness of the situation too. "Ai! Get down here!"

"But it's high –"

"There are children who are going to die if you don't!"

From high above they saw Nitori's eyes grow wide. He stripped off his shirt and shoes too, and quickly jumped down.

"Ai, you take these two. Make sure they stay afloat. Tetsuya, come!" Then Rin dove.

Kuroko followed him. And quickly overtook him. Rin may have been as fast as a shark swimming horizontally, but diving down was a completely different game. The bus had sunk quite far. Kuroko was worried about how far it might sink. The bay was very deep, but not so deep bridge supports couldn't touch the bottom of it. He put his worries from his mind as he and Rin each took two more kindergarteners and swam toward the surface. These couldn't swim, and they squirmed and panicked, and were almost more than Kuroko could handle. They started crying when they reached the water's surface. Kuroko wondered what they were going to do now. This was too much to leave Nitori with alone.

"There," Rin said, pointing, and they saw a boat speeding toward them to help. "Ai, sorry to do this to you, but we have to go back down now. The bus is sinking too fast. Just . . . get them to float on their backs."

Rin and Kuroko dove again. When they reached the bus again, Rin started gasping for air. There was fear in his eyes as they met Kuroko's and they both knew. Rin wasn't going to be able to come back for a third dive. He wouldn't make it down again.

Between the two of them, they got four more children to the surface. The boat had reached Nitori and the other children by that point, and loaded them up. Nitori jumped back down into the water to help with them, and Kuroko dove again. So did Rin. Giving up wasn't something he did without a fight. But shortly after they passed the depth where they'd caught up with the bus last time, Rin had to turn back. Kuroko could see how much it pained him. But he didn't have time to dwell on it. He reached the bus for the fourth time. Diving that far down was even starting to take its toll on him, and he started panting when he got into the bus again.

There was a lot of water in it now, and the children were scared. But they believed Kuroko when he promised them everything would be okay, and took two more back to the surface.

"I'm sorry," Rin said, shamefaced, when Kuroko surfaced again. "I'm so sorry. I couldn't go any deeper."

"I know," said Kuroko between gulping for air. "It's very hard."

"Are you alright, Tetsuya?"

"Yes. I'm fine, Akashi-kun," said Kuroko. Then he dove again.

Twenty feet down, he realized his slip. Thirty feet down, he decided it didn't matter much. There were three children and the bus driver to save.

Kuroko's lungs were burning when he got back to the bus. Honestly, he wasn't sure he'd be able to reach it again now. That wouldn't stop him from trying, but he was getting scared. He took two more children up. The one he left behind didn't seem at all scared, which stunned him.

"I know you'll be back for me, Ni-san," he said. "You came back for everyone else."

Rin was waiting for him at the surface again, looking worried. "Tetsuya, you don't look good."

"I'm fine. Here. Take them!" His breath was coming in gasps. He wasn't sure how much time he was spending under water, to the ratio of how many seconds he spent breathing above water, or in the bus, but those calculations wouldn't have meant a whole lot to him anyway, because this was very different from just lying on the bottom of the pool, or in a shallow ocean bed, holding his breath. He was having to expend a lot of energy swimming to the bus and back, and it was too much.

"Tetsuya –"

"I'm going."

He should have stayed up longer, he knew. He needed more recovery time, but he was afraid Rin would stop him.

He dove down, and down, and down. Further and further. Just when he was starting to worry that he'd lost the bus somehow, he saw it. Kuroko kicked as hard as he could and managed to get to it.

There wasn't much air in there now. The water was rising too fast. The last child was perched on top of a seat, starting to look worried, but brightened when he saw Kuroko. "I knew you'd be back, Ni-san!"

"Yeah," said Kuroko, coughing. "I need . . . I just need a minute . . ."

His vision was going in and out of focus. One second things were clear, the next so blurry that he might has well have been underwater. He was sure the CO2 levels in his blood had reached unsafe levels. But he wasn't finished yet.

Rin grabbed him when he reached the surface and hauled him into the boat. "That's it. You're finished, Tetsuya."

"No," Kuroko gasped. "The driver –"

"They've got a rescue team coming."

"It will . . . be too . . . late then . . . and you . . ." Kuroko doubled over panting. "You . . . know . . . it."

"Tetsuya, you're pale as a sheet! You can't stand up straight, you can't even string words together!" Rin shouted. "It's too dangerous to go back down!"

"The . . . driver!"

"You can't –"

"I won't . . . give up!" Kuroko shouted.

He took a deep breath and dived off the side of the boat before Rin could stop him.

A quarter of the way down, his lungs started aching. Halfway down, they were burning. Three quarters of the way and he wanted to scream in pain. Then he reached the bus, only to find that there was no air pocket left.

He grabbed the driver by the back of his jacket and started kicking toward the surface. Toward the light. But everything was going dark.

And that made sense. He'd spent his whole life in shadows. What right did he think he had to stand in the light? He was stupid to feel like he could really be somebody. He should have known after Teiko . . . he should have known after everything fell to pieces, that he could never come back from that. This past year with Haru and the others was a dream, nothing more. There was no light at the end of the tunnel for him. There was only darkness and pain.

Kuroko couldn't even tell if his eyes were open or not. Everything had gone so dark. He felt his grip on the bus driver's jacket loosening. His nose and lungs burned as he breathed in water.

No, he tried to protest, forcing his fingers into a fist. I can't give up. Not now.

He tried to kick, and claw his way upward, but his limbs weren't obeying him anymore.

Then he saw a dark shape moving toward him. For a second he thought it was a shark. Then a hand reached out to him and wrapped around his chest, and started pulling him up. A flash of light caught on his rescuer's hair, and Kuroko saw red.

Akashi?

* * *

"We're here at the coast town of Monotoya, where what could have been a terrible tragedy was thwarted by three high school students from two different schools, all of whom are on their school's swim clubs," announced a reporter.

The camera zoomed in on the three students in question, who clearly did not know they were being filmed, and most likely wouldn't have wanted to be anyway. The smallest amongst them lay on a gurney, half strapped down. An oxygen mask attached to a portable tank covered half of his face, but he pulled it off with one hand to reveal a very put upon expression.

"I don't need this, Akashi-kun."

"If you're still calling me someone else's name then you do need it, Tetsuya. Keep it on."

"Sorry. Rin-senpai. I don't need this."

Rin forcibly grabbed it and shoved it back over Kuroko's mouth. "You'll keep it on anyway."

Kuroko yanked it down again. "Nitori-kun, please tell him."

"Sorry, Kuroko-kun, but I agree with Rin-senpai. You nearly drowned."

"He _did_ drown," Rin said, forcing the mast back on Kuroko's face and securing the straps behind his head, letting them go with a snap. "Or have you forgotten how we had to give him CPR until they shocked his heart back online?"

"That was unnecessary," said Kuroko, his voice muffled by the mask. "And it burned me. You're mean." He touched one of two angry looking burn marks on his chest made by the paddles they'd used to shock his heart into restarting.

"You're stupid."

"Rin-senpai, be nice. He's a hero."

The reporter on TV started talking again. "When a bus containing fifteen kindergarteners, and their injured driver plummeted off a bridge into Monotoya Bay, these three high school students, Matsuoka Rin, Nitori Aichiiro, and Kuroko Tetsuya, wasted no time springing into action. Though the bus kept sinking deeper and deeper into the bay, they managed to get every single kindergartener, and the unconscious driver out. Kuroko Tetsuya, winner of last year's national free diving junior division, spent the better part of twenty minutes under water, continuously diving back down to the sinking bus, until everyone had been rescued, even after it sunk to depths where no normal person could reach it without the use of scuba equipment.

"On his last dive, Kuroko nearly didn't make it back to the surface, and was saved only by Matsuoka swimming halfway down and bringing him and the unconscious bus driver back up the rest of the way. Neither Kuroko, nor the bus driver, were breathing when they reached the surface. The bus driver was resuscitated on the boat, on the way to shore, but Kuroko nearly did not make it. Matsuoka and Nitori administered CPR until rescue workers arrived and were able to successfully restart his heart."

On screen Kuroko's argument with Rin had been muted while the reporter spoke, but now it was turned on again.

"This is pure oxygen. It's going to mess up the red blood cell levels in my blood so badly, I won't be able to stay under more than four minutes until next week," Kuroko complained in his usual monotone, having gotten the mask off again.

"Like I care! You don't need to be recreationally asphyxiating yourself for a week anyway, idiot!" Rin tried to jam the mask back on Kuroko's face, but Kuroko yanked it away and threw it. Since it was attached to the tank on the ground, it didn't go far, but it still obviously annoyed Rin. He glared at Kuroko. Kuroko stared blankly back.

"I'm fine, Akashi-kun. Please stop worrying."

"You're not fine!" shouted Rin. "You keep thinking I'm this Akashi guy! How can you mistake me for anyone, brat? How many people do you know with red hair and eyes?"

Kuroko considered this question. "With or without shark teeth?"

"Why you . . ."

"Don't Iron Claw him, Rin-senpai! He's hurt!"

"I'm not hurt."

"He needs the hospital!"

"I'm not going to the hospital."

"Yes you are," Rin said, glaring.

"I'm not."

"You are. Right now."

"He doesn't need the hospital. I'll be taking custody of him now," said a newcomer.

"Haru!"

Haru unstrapped Kuroko from the gurney and picked him up bridal style.

"I can walk, Haru-ni," said Kuroko.

"No," Haru said simply, and carried him off screen.

"Um . . ." said Nitori.

Rin sighed. "Come on, we better follow them. Haru's idea of caring for someone is tossing them in a pool and leaving them there."

* * *

When Kise saw the news reel, he stopped dead on the sidewalk to stare at the televisions airing it in a shop window. Seeing Kuroko so pale, and hearing how close he'd been to death filled him with terror. He'd meant to hunt down Kuroko and try to make things right between them again, but he hadn't known how. Now he saw that he'd almost missed his chance. He started running to the train station as soon as the story ended and the next one started, pulling out his phone as he ran. He didn't know where to find Kuroko, but he knew someone who did.

Momoi saw the story after getting a call from a frantic Kise. She pulled it up on her lap top and watched it with horror. Then she ran to Aomine. He was getting ready to head home after practicing. And he was going to practices these days, much to everyone's surprise. When she showed him the news story, he grew pale beneath his tan, then grabbed her hand and started running. They too had a train to catch.

Midorima saw the story before getting a frantic call from Kise. He was already at the train station, but saw no reason to mention that. He didn't want to seem like he cared too much, even though he now realized that he did care. A lot. So much that it physically hurt. Oha Asa had warned him he'd come close to losing something important today. He hadn't been able to procure his lucky item (a tiger with a yakitori in its mouth). In a way, this was his fault. If he'd done all he could to counteract this bad luck, Kuroko wouldn't have had to almost die. Guilt and fear clenched him and held on tight as he sat waiting for his train. He barely looked up when Aomine and Momoi joined him on his bench, their faces strained with worry too.

Aomine had never felt so sick. The image of Kuroko drowning invaded his mind and wouldn't leave. It wasn't a big leap from his pale, water logged image from the video Momoi showed him. He called himself every synonym for fool he could think of. Why hadn't he done something after last summer, when Kuroko showed up in Tokyo, talking about free diving, and holding his breath for multiple minutes? Who knew that was even possible? No, that was no excuse. He knew Kuroko. He knew Kuroko didn't lie or exaggerate. Which meant that he'd been telling the truth. So why hadn't Aomine shaken him until he saw sense and stopped doing something so dangerous right then and there? Why had he let Kuroko turn to free diving in the first place? It was his fault and he knew it. He was the one who'd driven Kuroko away from basketball. He could still remember that day in the rain, so clearly, it could have happened yesterday. The broken look on Kuroko's face, when Aomine berated his weak skills and told him that he didn't remember how to catch his passes anymore. Then the look on his face at the tournament, after they humiliated their final opponents. Oddly . . . Kuroko hadn't looked nearly as upset on the news video as he had on either of those occasions, despite having almost just died. If Aomine didn't know better, he would have thought that Kuroko could even have been said to look happy right then, or at least satisfied with life . . . which just proved that life without basketball had messed up his head. As his friend, no, as his best friend, it was Aomine's job to go drag him back to his senses, and get him to stop this free diving nonsense. Yes, saving those kids and the bus driver had been a good thing, but if Kuroko kept up his new hobby, it was going to get him killed. Aomine would be damned if he let that happen. It was time to fix what he'd broken.

Murasakibara found out from Momoi. At first he couldn't understand it. Kuro-chin almost died? Saving children from drowning, then almost drowning himself? He'd stayed underwater for almost twenty minutes, only coming up sporadically for air? It didn't really sink in until he watched the news story on his phone. Momoi sent him the link. Seeing Kuroko like that was sickening, and suddenly all the candy that Murasakibara had eaten after practice started to give him a stomach ache. His friend had been dying and he had been eating snacks. If Kuroko had died and they'd never put things right between them . . . Murasakibara didn't want to think about it. He received another call while he was trying to figure out what he needed to do. It was from Akashi, who told him to forget going to the train station, and to head for the airport instead. There would be a ticket waiting for him, that would get him as close as possible to Iwatobi. A limo would be waiting for him when he landed, to take him the rest of the way.

* * *

Haru took Kuroko to his home, and didn't relent and let him walk, even though he had to carry him up all those steps. Kuroko gave up on trying to convince him otherwise. They did, however, manage to convince Rin and Nitori to stop following them, when it became clear Haru was only taking Kuroko to his house and not the pool or the beach. Rin and Nitori went off in a different direction, toward the house where Gou lived with her mother.

He wondered how Haru had known where he was, but didn't ask. He just took it as a fact that Haru had been where he'd needed him to be, when he'd needed him there. Just like Rin had. In this regard, they were like the Generation of Miracles. A swim team version of them, anyway. They had a gift that gave them abilities far beyond any normal human's in their sport, and they seemed to attract each other.

Kuroko took a quick bath to wash the ocean water off, then stumbled out to the living room, dressed in Haru's clothes. He was dead tired, but at the same time wired, and knew he wouldn't be sleeping anytime soon.

"Dinner?" Haru asked.

"Please."

Haru turned on his grill and put two pieces of mackerel on to cook, then started the rice cooker. Then he paused and added six more pieces of mackerel to the grill. And Kuroko realized that they were having lots of company for dinner.

Sure enough, Makoto, Nagisa, Rei, and Gou showed up, along with Rin and Nitori.

"Tetsu-chan! You're a hero!" Nagisa shouted, glomping Kuroko with a hug worthy of being given by Kise or Momoi. "But you almost died! Never do that again!"

"I can't breathe."

"Get off him, Nagisa!" said Rei, pulling him off. "Don't kill him!"

Makoto fussed over Kuroko all through dinner. Rin watched him with a sharp eye, obviously still worried. Gou gushed about how heroic her boys had been and how proud she was. Nagisa kept the mood light, while Rei and Nitori were more or less quiet, but spoke up when they had something to say. Haru was mostly quiet too, as always, but Kuroko saw him watching everything.

It was late when everyone else finally left. Kuroko would have gone home too, but Haru flatly told him that wasn't an option. "You're staying here tonight. No arguing."

Kuroko frowned. 'There's something I need to test. I don't think I'll be able to sleep until I make sure . . ."

An understanding look crossed Haru's eyes. "Does it have to be tonight?"

"Yes."

"Will it work if we go to the pool?"

"That will be fine." Kuroko knew Haru was a little more apprehensive now about others swimming in the ocean at night after the scare they'd had at their training camp.

Haru stared at Kuroko for a moment. "I'll give you three minutes. No more."

"That should be enough," Kuroko said. Then they started walking to their school.

* * *

Akashi saw what had happened while he was eating dinner. There were several televisions in Rakuzan's dining hall, mounted high on the walls and permanently set to the same news station. When Akashi looked up and saw his former teammate, no, his former friend, laying on a stretcher, struggling with an oxygen mask, his own heart stopped.

The food in his mouth turned to sawdust. He nearly choked. His current teammates almost panicked and started to bombard him with worried questions. It took only one look to shut them up.

He couldn't hear what was being said, but there were closed captions, and he could lip read. He saw Kuroko's not quite argument with Matsuoka Rin, and saw Kuroko mistake his new friend for Akashi twice on camera. That hurt life a knife straight to the heart.

He left as soon as the story ended, sprinting out of the dining hall, ignoring his teammates and his tray alike. His phone started ringing. A hoarse voiced Midorima was on the other end of the call. No sooner had he told his old vice captain that he was aware of the situation, and en route to Kuroko now, and ended the call, then he received another. Kise sounded more scared than Akashi had ever heard anyone sound. And as soon as he was off the phone, a sobbing Momoi called. Akashi finally got off the phone with her and sent a message to Murasakibara, knowing he'd have been informed by now. He made travel arrangements for his friend who was furthest away from Iwatobi as he himself ran from his school to the train station.

He tortured himself on the train ride there, scouring the internet for every scrap of footage concerning the incident that he could find. He pieced it together fairly well. He saw Kuroko jumping off a bridge, higher than could be considered safe to jump from without prior confirmation of its safety. (And how did Kuroko manage to change into his swim trunks so quickly was a mystery) Then he saw Kuroko surface with the first two children, right as the swimmers from the other school, Samezuka, arrived. Matsuoka Rin joined Kuroko first and convinced his kouhai to jump in as well. Akashi saw them both dive multiple times. Then he saw Rin reach his limit, though Kuroko still managed to dive again and again, saving more lives each time. Until the last time when he didn't come back up. By that time Rin and Nitori were on the boat, standing, and their anxiety was obvious. Then they both dove off the boat, back into the water. Nitori resurfaced not even half a minute later, spluttering. He tried again, but had no better success than before. Before he could try a third time, Rin breached the surface, gasping for air and looking sick, but holding a pale, unmoving Kuroko tight around his chest with one arm, and clenching the equally immobile bus driver's jacket with his other hand. Nitori quickly got back onto the boat and helped him haul them on. Then the boat sped toward the nearby docks.

That was all there was to that video, but Akashi was able to find another, taken on the boat. He was treated to the entire panicked rescessitation attempt on Kuroko's drowned body, in high definition. Nitori worked on the bus driver, while Rin gave CPR to Kuroko. Nitori managed to get the bus driver breathing and conscious. Rin didn't have as good of luck, and Nitori quickly moved to join him and help. But Kuroko, stupid, stubborn Kuroko, remained still and lifeless until they reached the shore, where a rescue team was waiting. The electric paddles succeeded where Rin and Nitori didn't and restarted Kuroko's heart, jolting him back to life. Even though Akashi already knew the outcome, he found himself fighting back relieved tears when Kuroko sat up and screamed.

He watched the news video again to reassure himself, with sound this time. It made him feel like he was the one who'd been shocked by electric paddles, his chest started hurting so badly. Kuroko's deadpan monotone voice was like soothing music to Akashi's terrified soul, even though it hurt even worse, hearing him mistake Rin for him.

By the time he arrived in Iwatobi, ahead of the rest of the Generation of Miracles thanks to proximity, he had Kuroko's home address, as well as Nanase Haruka's. He paid a quick visit to the one room apartment his friend was renting. He did some breaking and entering when no one answered his knocks, and quickly ascertained that Kuroko had not returned here after his ordeal. It was dark by then, but he didn't care. He sent a text to Momoi, to update the others, then ran all the way to Haru's house, since finding a cab in a small city like Iwatobi seemed nigh impossible, and the foot paths made running faster anyway.

When he got there, the house was empty, but showed signs of a number of people having been there recently. Akashi didn't even have to break in, since the door was left unlocked. But no one was there now. Akashi didn't doubt Haru had brought Kuroko there, but they'd left. But to where? Then he remembered Rin's last line on the news story. _Haru's idea of caring for someone is tossing them in a pool and leaving them there._

He did a quick search on his phone. Iwatobi's sole swim club had closed down years ago and recently been demolished, making the only pool Haru and Kuroko likely had access to the one at their school. Akashi sent another text, telling his friends, who'd just arrived in Iwatobi, that was where they would most likely find Kuroko. Then he set off running there himself.

* * *

Kuroko had to know. He had to make sure that he hadn't lost that feeling that free diving gave him. He didn't want this to be like basketball, when something he loved turned into something he hated and feared. But that's what happened the last time things turned dark for him. He had to make sure this wasn't the same. He wouldn't be able to rest until he did.

He had no idea how Haru understood that without him speaking a word about it, but Haru did. And he was so grateful.

A waterproof watch was put in his hand before he jumped into the pool. Haru showed him that he had a stop watch.

"Three minutes," he repeated. If you take longer I will jump in and drag you out. That went unsaid, but Kuroko heard it anyway.

"Three minutes," he agreed. Then he dove in.

Kuroko settled at the bottom of the deep end and stared up at the moon through the water. It was a beautiful view from the bottom of the pool. He was amazed how few people ever bothered to see things this way.

He waited, watching the seconds tick away on his watch. No fear overwhelmed him and no darkness tried to claim him. It was just him and the water, and it felt good. Kuroko smiled. He hadn't lost it.

Then, after a minute and a half, a dark silhouette dove into the water and shot right toward him. Kuroko was confused as an arm wrapped around him and started pulling him toward the surface. It hadn't even been two minutes yet. Why was Haru . . .

A flash of red in the moonlight greeted his eyes as he broke the surface. His vision had gone blurry, from the water dripping in his eyes, but he could guess who this was.

"Rin-senpai," he said, unable to keep all his exasperation hidden. "That wasn't necessary."

"I'm not Rin, Tetsuya," said a familiar voice, though its tone was different from what Kuroko had heard before. "And you are a _fool!"_

"Akashi-kun?"

The sound of running footsteps reached them and Kuroko looked up in time to see Aomine, Midorima, Momoi, Kise, and Murasakibara all run in through the gate.

"Akashi! We heard you scream! What . . ." Aomine stopped talking at the sight of the two shorter teens in the pool. "Tetsu? You alright?"

"I'm fine." Kuroko tried not to whine. He pulled away from Akashi and looked at Haru, who sat, dangling his feet into the water, looking unconcerned by the proceedings. "You could have stopped Akashi-kun from diving in."

"No. Trying to would have been futile once he saw you at the bottom."

"I thought you were dead down there!" Akashi shouted, grabbing Kuroko again. "What were you thinking, doing this after what happened today? Are you insane, Tetsuya?"

"I'm not insane. Why are you even here?"

"Because we saw you on TV!"

Kuroko stared at them. "I was on TV?"

"Y-yes!" Kise said in a trembling voice.

"We saw that you almost drowned, Kuro-chin," said Murasakibara, looking sick.

"Did drown," Midorima corrected, looking like the words pained him to say.

"And you came all this way to tell me you're disappointed in me again?" Kuroko gave Akashi an incredulous look. "You need to get a hobby."

"Idiot. We didn't come here because we were disappointed in you!" shouted Aomine. "We came because we were worried sick!"

Kuroko was confused. He was sure that showed on his face. "The news must have said I didn't die."

"That doesn't stop us from worrying!" said Momoi. "Obviously we were going to come here and make sure you're really alright."

"The news wouldn't lie about that," Kuroko deadpanned. "They'd have a better story if I died."

"Get out of the water, you two, before you both get hypothermia," said Midorima, kneeling at the edge and reaching down a hand toward Kuroko and Akashi.

Kuroko frowned and looked at Haru. "I still have a minute left."

"Did you learn what you needed to?" Haru asked.

"Yes, but –"

"Then enough for now." Haru held a hand out to Kuroko, who took it, deciding to concede. He let Haru pull him out of the water, then Haru dropped a towel over Kuroko's head, and went to put back on his own shoes. "Your friends are weird."

"Who are you?" Aomine asked, ill temperedly.

Kuroko made some quick introductions as he and Akashi dried off. Haru seemed very unimpressed. The Generation of Miracles equally so. They sat down on the benches beside the pool and sat in silence for several minutes.

Uncharacteristically, at least for the person he used to be, Kuroko broke it. "You couldn't have not said all this in a phone call? You really had to come all the way here to not say it in person?"

Only Kise laughed. "Kurokocchi, did you just make a joke?"

"No. I still have no sense of humor."

"That's a lie," said Haru. Everyone looked at him. "I know it was you who filled Rei's shoes with pudding."

"Y-you what?" asked Aomine, sounding like he didn't believe this.

"Rei-kun really likes pudding," deadpanned Kuroko. "I thought he would appreciate it."

The others stared at him for at least half a minute in silence.

"You've changed, Tetsu," said Aomine, breaking the silence. "Not in a bad way. But you're definitely different than you were. And . . . so are we. I think. I hope."

Something about them was definitely different. He almost felt like he was in the presence of the people he'd been friends with in his second year of middle school again, except a few years older now. Not the cold strangers they'd become during third year.

Were they really back? he wondered. Or was this some cruel façade? And if they were back . . . that meant that he'd been even more wrong to give up on them, didn't it? Kuroko felt frozen. He didn't know what to do or what to believe now. He felt more like he was drowning now than he had when he was actually really drowning.

Where did they go from here? Was it even possible to put the past behind them after they'd all broken their bonds of friendship? Even if they'd changed back to being the people they used to be, Kuroko wasn't the same person he once was anymore. And he didn't want to be.

He liked laughing with Nagisa and Makoto on the roof, trading books with Rei, watching Rin pretend that it didn't drive him crazy whenever Gou started getting friendly with any guy at all, and resting on the bottom of the pool beside Haru, as they both stared up at the surface, needing no words between them.

"I'm not going to stop free diving."

There were frowns all around, some of them confused, some worried.

"I love it. And I'm excellent at it. And I'm not giving it up. Can you accept that?"

Akashi was the first to speak, his voice full of disapproval. "It's dangerous. You almost died today."

Kuroko shrugged. "I couldn't have lived with myself if I let them die and didn't even try to save them. So it was an all or nothing gamble. And it worked out."

Akashi looked at him miserably. "You –"

"You say I've changed, and you're right. And you can't be friends with who I used to be, three years ago. You can only be friends with who I am now." The choice is yours. That was left unsaid, but rang heavily in Kuroko's tone. The ball was in their court now. If they wanted to be friends again, if they wanted this to work, then they had to accept him as he was now, or at least try to. If they couldn't, he saw no reason to try either. And he was willing to try again, he realized now. But only if they were. He liked the person he'd become. He wasn't going to change just to find out if he liked the people they'd become now. He didn't think he should have to. Real friends wouldn't ask that of him.

Surprisingly, it was Midorima who spoke first. "I don't have any particular objections to you free diving. I confess, I looked it up, after our run in last summer. However, I would feel much better if you would only dive when you had a partner on hand. Which is something every professional free diver strongly recommends to begin with."

"That can be arranged," said Haru, causing the entire Generation of Miracles to jump. They'd forgotten he was still there.

"I'm fine with that too," Kise said. "I really want to get to know who you are now, Kurokocchi. You went and turned into a hero while our backs were turned."

"Kuro-chin did a very good thing," Murasakibara agreed. "But don't scare us like that ever again."

"I'll try not to, Murasakibara-kun," Kuroko promised. He looked at the others. Akashi's face was hidden in shadows. Aomine looked upset. And Momoi still looked worried.

"I don't want you getting hurt, Tetsu-kun," Momoi said. "Free diving seems like it's too dangerous. But . . . I can accept it. Or at least try to. I'll do some research too, and help find ways to make it safer for you!"

Kuroko decided not to shoot down that idea, however unnecessary it was.

"What about basketball, Tetsu?" Aomine asked.

"What about it?"

"You love basketball more than anything. You can't just trade it for swimming, or free diving, or whatever," Aomine said with a pained look on his face.

"I haven't held a basketball in over a year. After our third year championship, I started to hate it," said Kuroko honestly. But when Aomine looked like he was actually going to start crying, he had to add, "But part of what made me love it, was the people I used to play with. Without them . . . without you all, it was meaningless."

"So –"

"I'm still not giving up free diving."

"But do you think you might want to try playing ball with us again? You don't have to switch to the basketball club or anything. Maybe just play three on three with us tomorrow?" Aomine asked. "I . . . I don't want you to keep hating something you used to love so much."

"I . . . if everyone else is alright with that . . . we could try."

That turned all eyes to Akashi, the only one who hadn't given his opinion on Kuroko's determination to keep free diving yet.

Akashi, despite having been given a towel, was still dripping, and looked cold, but Kuroko didn't think that had anything to do with the miserable look on his face.

I did this to you. This is my fault. It was my words that made you think you now have to stand up for what's right every single time.

His expression was an open book of guilt. But voicing it wasn't his nature. Instead he steeled himself before speaking.

"I expect you to have a partner with you when you free dive from now on, Tetsuya. Every single time. No exceptions. If you want us to accept that you've taken up such a dangerous hobby, you will meet us halfway and do what you can to ensure your own safety," he said sternly.

"Alright," Kuroko agreed. "Fair is fair."

Akashi reached out to clap him on the shoulder. He left his hand there and gave Kuroko's shoulder a tight squeeze. His grip loosened when Kuroko gave him a smile in return. It seemed that seeing expressions on Kuroko's face was a shock to him. Well, if they were going to be friends again, he'd have to get used to it. Kuroko would never be as expressive as people like Kise or Nagisa, but he'd grown fond of smiling when he had a reason to be happy.

And right now, he very much had a reason to be happy. He could feel the last of his past's shackles crumbling away with the realization that his old friends would be joining his new ones in his future.

And finally, at long last, Kuroko was truly free.

* * *

My knowledge of free diving comes solely from Wikipedia, so sorry for anything I got wrong.

Last crossover oneshot for awhile, probably.

Please review!


	7. Kuroko no Graffiti Artist

It was like an itch. One Kuroko hadn't felt in a long time.

When his team fell apart in Teiko, everything turned dark for Kuroko. The world he was drifting through might as well have been monochrome, all black and white and grey. The urge to paint died when all his colors drifted apart.

But it was back now. Kuroko could feel it in his veins. Stealing the school's chalk machine to declare his goals, so that he could join the basketball team woke it up. It wasn't the same as spraying colors on a wall for the world to see, and turning his feelings into street art, but it was more alive than he'd felt in a long time.

Kuroko suppressed the urge at first, worried that it was premature. He didn't even have any inspiration, yet. But after the practice game against Kaijou, after beating Kise and seeing a glimmer of his old friend, and then after lunch the next day with his new team, his new friends, Kuroko had found his inspiration. That very evening, as soon as practice let out, he went to find his canvas.

There was a suitable blank space right near some street ball courts close to his house, on the wall against the stairs leading up to the courts. Kuroko tossed down his bag of spray paints, holding one in either hand, and envisioned his masterpiece. When he could see it clearly in his mind, he shook both cans to mix the paint well, and got to work.

He started with the background. That was always important to him. Some light blues, teals, and a little bit of white made for a nice backdrop. Next he did the outlines of the letters in dark purple, choosing to use a bold, kind of jagged style of writing. In English. As a tribute to his inspiration. All caps, except for the letter I. He did those lowercase. Because he liked dotting the I's. It was fun. Don't judge him!

After that he started filling the letters in with red, orange, and yellow. The colors of firelight. He made some of the words two-toned. Then he colored the only part of his art that could actually be considered a picture. And then added some flames to that part. Just because.

Finally, he signed his work, with his own trademark signature. A blue bird with a basketball on his head. He added a speech bubble beside it and in that sprayed his street art name. The Shadow.

Finally, Kuroko stood back and admired his artwork. It was good. An excellent comeback piece. He felt a surge of pride looking at it, because it was official. He was back. In every way that mattered. He'd found a new light that had brought color back to his world.

Painting this piece had been an unusually bold move for him. Especially since he put it here, so close to where he and Kagami both lived. He knew Kagami was bound to see it someday. And when he did, there was no way he wouldn't recognize the catch phrase. And if he needed any hint as to which of his teammates had done this . . . well, Kuroko might as well have signed it with the kanji for his name. That would have hidden his identity from Kagami better than his tagger's signature. Kuroko had never before let anyone know about his questionably legal hobby, but Kagami was special. Kuroko was betting everything on him as it was. And honestly, Kuroko wanted him to see it, even if he wasn't sure how Kagami would react to it. Maybe someday Kuroko would be able to explain to his new friend exactly what this meant, and how much Kagami had given back to him. That day wasn't here yet, but Kuroko believed they'd get there someday. Someday soon.

He hid a smile as two police officers walked by then stopped to scowl.

"Damn kids," the first officer growled. "We just had this wall scrubbed clean!"

He looked right over Kuroko, who was still holding a can of paint in either hand, and had a satchel full of other colors at his feet. There were some definite advantages to being invisible. Especially when you had a hobby like this one.

"Forget it. These things get tagged all the time," said the second officer. "Whoever did this is long gone."

Kuroko walked right between the two officers as he made his getaway. Neither of them even noticed him.

Only once they were behind him, unable to see his expression, did Kuroko allow himself to smile. The future was looking bright.

* * *

Midorima nearly fell out of the rickshaw when Takao abruptly screeched to a stop and jumped off the bike. "Takao! What are you doing?"

"This . . . this . . ." Takao was pulling out his phone, staring at a graffiti covered wall like he'd just found the holy grail.

Midorima scowled and read the message that had gotten Takao so worked up. "This is Japanese Lunchtime Rush?"

"Yes! Awesome! The Shadow's back!" Takao actually jumped up and down as though he just found out Christmas had come early. "Hang on, Shin-chan, I've gotta blog this!"

Midorima stared at his teammate then looked back at the graffiti that caused him to get into such a state. He saw nothing special about it, aside from its weirdness. What exactly did it mean? "THiS iS JAPANESE LUNCHTiME RUSH." And why did that last H have an arm coming out of it that was holding . . . was that supposed to be a sandwich? And why the hell was it on fire?

"What are you so excited about?" demanded Midorima. "It's just some weird graffiti."

"Shin-chan," said Takao in a pained voice. "It's street art. By the Shadow."

Midorima just stared.

"The Shadow, Shin-chan! The Shadow! The phantom graffiti artist who spray paints freaking murals right in front of police stations, and ghosts right past security guards if he's got a message he wants to leave on their building." Takao looked disappointedly at him. "He's done a few political and public awareness themes, but his favorite theme is basketball. Don't you ever play streetball? He's pretty much a legend in the streetball circles around Tokyo."

"I prefer to play in gyms," Midorima said stiffly.

"That's because you're such a princess."

"What?"

Takao waved a hand at him. "I can't expect you to appreciate real art. So just believe me when I tell you, he's a big deal. You always look for his work when you go to a streetball court. Because . . . I don't know, it's kind of like keeping an eye out for falling stars or something. It's cool. And he's got a lot of fans. But he disappeared for half a year. No one's found anything new by him in over six months. Until now."

Takao held up his phone to the sky, staring at the screen as he tapped buttons, posting the image somewhere in cyberspace.

"Yep! I'm the first one to find it," he said, sounding delighted. "It's like finding a unicorn!"

"You're an imbecile."

"You're just jealous you didn't find it."

Midorima didn't justify that stupid comment with a response. He glanced back at the graffiti instead, wondering just what Takao saw in such nonsense. The signature suddenly caught his eye. A blue bird with a basketball on its head? And this person, this street artist, called himself the Shadow?

No, Midorima thought with a slight shake of his head. It couldn't be.

* * *

Kagami stared at the graffiti and felt his blood pressure rising. He looked around, half expecting Kuroko to materialize out of nowhere, with that deadpan expression of his, claiming he'd been there all along. But for once, that didn't happen.

He shook his head as he continued up the stairs, toward the streetball court. "Right. Next time I see him, I'll kill him."

Of course that was an empty threat. Kagami had grown up playing streetball, and otherwise hanging out on the streets. He'd done a bit of tagging himself in his misguided youth. He had a respect for street artists and knew quality art when he saw it.

A smile spread over Kagami's lips as he wondered if Kuroko would ever stop surprising him.

* * *

(Kuroko being a tagger is practically canon. If you go to YouTube and watch the video called "Kuroko no Basuke ~ Catal Rhythm~ Special Ending Story" you'll see what I mean. And see the graffiti in this story)


	8. Kuroko no Yakuza

Akashi was scared.

He hated the feeling, but he couldn't deny it.

It was a natural emotion for anyone in his position, he knew. And his position was currently tied to a chair, gagged, and blind folded, in the hands of kidnappers who had already sent their unreasonable demands for exorbitant amounts of money to his father, without providing proof of life. Not that Akashi's father was likely to pay those sums even if they did provide him with proof that his only son was still alive. They were beyond what even someone of Akashi's family could afford to pay, and they all knew the statistics of how many kidnapping victims ended up dead. Akashi's father would play the odds and play it safe.

Which meant that Akashi Seijuurou was in this by himself.

He felt cold and helpless and so horribly alone. A part of him was holding out hope that his father might, by some miracle agree to the ransom and maybe, just maybe, these kidnappers weren't as horrible of scum as they seemed, and they might honor their part of the bargain and let him go.

"I don't believe this shit. It's ten minutes after the drop off time and there's still no fucking sign of the bag, or any errand boy he might send to deliver the money."

Akashi felt that hope start to crumble.

"Then what the hell are we supposed to do?"

"You know what we said we'd do if he didn't give us the money."

"Yeah, but the kid's . . . well, a kid."

"He's worthless if we can't get a ransom for him. Worse than worthless. He's a liability. He's seen some of our faces. He knows our voices. I say we play it safe and get rid of him."

With a gag in his mouth, Akashi couldn't even try to reason with them. If he could have spoken to them, he might have been able to work something out. He had his own funds he could draw from. He didn't have the amounts they'd been asking for at his disposal, but surely they would have found it better than nothing.

"Let's not be too hasty about offing him. He's a pretty boy. And he's got interesting eyes. There's still some profit that could be made from him. Or if that's too much trouble, we could just enjoy him ourselves."

A hand settled on Akashi's head, threading its fingers possessively through his hair. Another touched the back of his neck then slid around under his jaw, cupping his face.

"What do you think, pretty boy? Want to have some fun before you go?" a sickening voice asked, and hot breath assaulted the side of Akashi's face. "The sounds I'm going to make come out of that cute little mouth of yours . . . The ways I'm going to touch you. You won't know if you're in heaven or hell, even when you get there."

Show them nothing, Akashi ordered himself, trying to stay perfectly still. Don't give them the satisfaction.

"Aww, the poor thing's shaking," that same sickening voice laughed. "With anticipation, no doubt."

Akashi's head was jerked back and he felt lips sucking at his throat. He gave an involuntary cry, which only spurred his kidnapper on.

"If you're going to fool around with that kid, take him into the other room. I don't want to see your filth."

An evil laugh. "With pleasure. Hey, let me borrow your phone."

"What the hell for?"

"Well mine doesn't have a camera, and –"

There was a noise like something popping. It was followed by the sound of something hitting the ground.

"Yamata! Shit!"

Another pop. Something else hit the ground.

"Who the fuck is shooting at us?"

"Find some cover you moron! Don't just stand –"

Pop. Thud.

"Fuck, fuck, fuck. What is this shit?"

"Your death."

Akashi almost sobbed hearing those two words. He recognized that cool monotone, if not the timbre of rage that short phrase contained. He had never been so glad to hear anyone in his life.

"Ah! What the fuck! Where'd you come from – gah!"

This time, instead of a pop, there was a slicing sound. Then the thud was accompanied by a splattering sound, and Akashi could smell the blood.

"I would say this was nothing personal. But that would be a lie," Kuroko said calmly, oh so calmly, but still with that tone of barely suppressed rage.

Pop . . . Pop . . . Pop . . . Pop . . .

Akashi recognized that sound now. He'd heard it in movies. The sound of a gun with a silencer.

Moments later, he felt his blindfold being gently pulled off. A pair of blank blue eyes stared into his mismatched red and yellow ones. You had to know Kuroko well to be able to detect the worry in his seemingly empty gaze, but Akashi could see it clearly as Kuroko pulled the gag away then set about cutting Akashi's bonds. The knife he was using was stained with red.

"Tetsuya," Akashi whispered, trying hard to recompose himself.

"Please don't worry, Akashi-kun. They're all dead. Or will be soon."

Akashi glanced at the corpses. All but one of them had two bullet wounds. One to the chest, and a second to the head. One had a slit throat as well as the two bullet wounds. And the one exception, who'd only been shot once, was still alive, but bleeding from his stomach.

Kuroko walked coolly over to him and raised his gun.

"Don't. Please, don't," wheezed the man on the floor. The man with the voice. He'd been the one who'd grabbed Akashi's hair and planned on . . . and planned on . . .

Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!

Akashi stared as the man's pants became soaked with blood around his groin area, and the man started screaming in pain.

Kuroko calmly ejected the clip from his gun, loaded another clip into his gun, and emptied it into the man's groin again.

"Please! Stop! Awhaahaa! I need a hospital! Please?"

"The Black Hands have sentenced you to death. The only favor I'd be inclined to give you is a quick death." Kuroko looked down on him impassively as an ice prince, cold and merciless. "Until I saw what you were about to do to my friend. My relations to Akashi-kun aside, we don't tolerate rapists on our turf anyway."

"Please!"

"No."

Now that Akashi thought about it . . . kills with one bullet to the chest and another to the head, were the trademark kills of the Black Hands . . . one of the smaller yakuza outfits in Tokyo, but not one to be sneezed at by any means. They seemed to remain a small outfit by choice, and from what Akashi had heard about them, they were ruthlessly efficient and completely merciless when crossed. And why did Akashi only realize, just now, that Kuroko's family name used the exact same kanji that the Black Hands used for their name?

"Akashi-kun?"

Akashi's eyes snapped back to Kuroko who was looking at him with even more concern now. Even someone who didn't know him might be able to pick up on it if they were looking closely.

"Are you injured, Akashi-kun?"

"No," said Akashi. "Tetsuya, you're . . ."

He didn't even know what he wanted to say.

Kuroko seemed to understand anyway. "Yes. But I trust you'll keep this information to yourself."

And that was confirmation that Kuroko was one of the Black Hands.

"Yes. Of course," Akashi said, still trying to pull himself together. Why was it so hard? he wondered. Nothing had happened. Kuroko had stopped the kidnappers before they'd done anything. He shouldn't be this freaked out.

"We should leave here, Akashi-kun," said Kuroko. "Please come with me."

Akashi looked at the still living kidnapper, the one who'd . . . who'd wanted to . . . well, he was still alive. In a horrible amount of pain, but alive nonetheless.

"Don't worry about him. He's gut shot. He's not going to make it."

"He's still alive," said Akashi softly. And damn it, but his fear came through in his voice.

Kuroko looked at Akashi with blank eyes then loaded his gun again and turned on the kidnapper.

"No! Please!"

Kuroko shot him twice. Once in the chest, and once in the head. Then he looked at Akashi, a question in his eyes.

Better?

Akashi nodded and stood shakily. Kuroko gave an approving nod and beckoned to him. He kept his gun at the ready as they left the warehouse, but it turned out he had no reason to use it. There had only been four kidnappers. Kuroko had killed every one of them.

They left on foot, which seemed really weird to Akashi, until he remembered that it was Kuroko who'd been sent to kill everyone in that warehouse (maybe even Akashi, though thankfully if he had, Kuroko clearly had no plans to carry out that order) and that leaving on foot was the best way for Kuroko to disappear. Motorcycles and cars weren't invisible like he was. Once they were what Kuroko judged to be a safe distance away, he tossed his gun off a bridge, into a river then led Akashi into a restaurant. A Maji Burger of all places. Minutes later, they were sitting in a booth, both with vanilla milkshakes.

"I'm really not thirsty," said Akashi.

"Vanilla milkshakes make things better."

Kuroko logic. Akashi realized now how much he'd missed it. A small smile spread over his lips. "Is that why we're here?"

"Yes. And because you just found out I'm in the yakuza. I wasn't sure if this was something we needed to talk about." Kuroko waited for a moment and when Akashi didn't speak, asked, "Is this something normal people would feel the need to talk about?"

"Normal people wouldn't be in this situation," Akashi said. He wasn't sure why that suddenly seemed so funny, but forced himself not to laugh. He was well aware what hysterics were, and he refused to give in to them.

"I suppose not. So . . . you don't want to talk about it?"

Akashi giggled. Then made himself stop. Kuroko was so socially inept, it was really hilarious at times. But it was just plain rude to laugh at someone who'd just saved your life and virtue. "I don't think there is much on the matter to say."

Kuroko looked relieved.

For some reason this tugged at Akashi's soul. Before he realized what he was doing, he'd grabbed Kuroko's hand.

He saw Kuroko's free hand twitch and reach inside his jacket, where Akashi had seen he had another gun, when he'd sheathed and hid away his knife. But Kuroko didn't actually draw his weapons, or even touch them. He stared at Akashi impassively. You had to know him very well to see the alarm in his blank eyes.

Akashi released him and held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry. I just . . . you saved my life."

"I hope you don't intend to tell anyone that."

Akashi would have liked to see a freaking medal get pinned on Kuroko, and force his father to give his friend a substantial reward. But he knew that would not go over very well, where the law was concerned. Not considering the trail of bodies Kuroko had just left behind them.

"No, I won't tell anyone. But I'm not ungrateful. I –"

"You should forget it," said Kuroko blankly.

"I'm never going to forget it," Akashi said more forcefully than he probably should have. "You saved my life, Tetsuya. You saved me from . . ."

His throat suddenly closed and tears blurred his eyes.

"Yes. You're safe now," Kuroko agreed, zeroing in on what he clearly deemed the most important part.

"Yes. Thanks to you."

"Now drink your milkshake."

Akashi obeyed that order, as many people would when it was issued by an armed member of the yakuza sitting right across from them.

* * *

Later, after he'd finished drinking the milkshake, Akashi managed to recompose himself again, as befitted a member of his family. He couldn't say for sure whether or not it had been the milkshake that allowed him to regain a calm state of mind, but he wasn't ruling it out.

"If you need to call someone now, I'll let you use my phone," said Kuroko. "We can just say you ran into me here."

"I . . . no." Akashi decided. "My father's security has a breach in it. I don't know who I can trust right now. Even amongst the police."

Kuroko made a derisive sound at the mention of the police. Akashi couldn't help it. He stared. It was still very hard to reconcile his preconceived image of kind, gentle Kuroko Tetsuya with this new reality containing Black Hand Yakuza Kuroko Tetsuya.

"Tetsuya . . . did you know I was in that warehouse when you went there?"

Kuroko's expression turned into a blank mask that not even Akashi's Emperor Eye could penetrate.

"No. We only knew that a ring of kidnappers were operating on our turf without our leave. My uncle sent me to take care of them."

"And their victim?"

That question got an emotional reaction. Anger flickered across Kuroko's mask. The question clearly insulted him. He didn't bother answering.

Akashi breathed an internal sigh of relief. He couldn't see even this new version of Kuroko hurting an innocent, but he'd wanted to make sure.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have doubted you, my friend."

The anger vanished, replaced by understanding. "No. You were right to doubt. I'm not a particularly good person. I am sorry to spring this surprise on you after everything else you've been through, Akashi-kun."

"You have nothing to apologize for, Tetsuya. I'm indebted to you."

"We can arrange for you to go back to Kyoto," Kuroko changed the subject. "Would you be safe at your school?"

Akashi nodded. "Rakuzan has good security."

Kuroko took out his phone and sent a text.

"Your uncle sent you to take care of that warehouse?" asked Akashi, remembering the comment he'd made just a moment ago, and now zeroing in on a detail he hadn't focused as much on before.

"Yes."

Akashi stared at Kuroko, hoping he'd volunteer more information. He didn't. But he did meet Akashi's eyes with a look that said he knew what Akashi was waiting for. So he didn't intend to say more about that, Akashi realized.

Which in itself, said a few things. Akashi had suspected Kuroko was related to the organization's higher ups the moment he realized that the kanji for Kuroko's name matched the ones used by the Black Hands. And he'd been sent to take care of multiple enemies alone. Presumably not for the first time. By an uncle. And he wasn't afraid to take liberties with his orders. Akashi was sure rescuing the kidnap victim and forcing milkshakes on him hadn't been part of Kuroko's orders. Most likely he was supposed to have left him there, quite possibly still tied up and blindfolded. But Kuroko had decided to deviate, and didn't seem to be worried about repercussions. And now he was using Black Hand resources to get Akashi a ride back to Kyoto. If Kuroko wasn't part of the main family of the Black Hands then Akashi would give up captaincy of his team.

They sat in silence while Kuroko sent a few more texts, and received some as well. Then Kuroko stood. Akashi looked up and Kuroko nodded toward the door, so Akashi stood then followed him.

They walked outside and into the alley behind the Maji Burger, where an all black car with windows tinted so dark they were probably illegal, was waiting. Kuroko opened the driver's door and got in. Akashi walked quickly to the passenger's side, trying to hide his surprise. Kuroko was full of surprises today, it seemed. Akashi hadn't known he could drive. But that was a slight surprise compared to the one where Kuroko was capable of killing multiple people without the slightest hesitation.

Kuroko opened the glove compartment and pulled out a set of keys, then started the car. Akashi put on his seatbelt.

Kuroko looked at him with blank eyes. "I'm a good driver."

"I didn't say you weren't."

Kuroko looked meaningfully at the seatbelt.

"It's basic roadway safety. You should wear yours too, Tetsuya. In fact, I insist upon it."

Kuroko stared at him. Then he put on his seatbelt, probably deciding that was too small a thing to be defiant about.

"You should also wait to start the car until you've made all the necessary preparations for driving, so as not to waste fuel," Akashi commented.

He almost laughed at the look Kuroko gave him. Kuroko didn't even deign to comment on that. He just shifted the car into drive and pulled out of the alley.

For a minute, Akashi wondered what on earth was wrong with him. He was teasing and giving orders to a well connected member of the yakuza who he knew, with no doubts or room for misinterpretation, was a trained killer. But . . . he was still Kuroko. The little boy from Teiko who'd always looked up to Akashi, and not just because he was the only first stringer who was shorter than him. He was the boy who'd cried when they'd hurt his friend. The one who'd had more morals than the rest of the team put together.

Had Kuroko been a killer even then?

These pieces just wouldn't connect. It was like trying to force jigsaw puzzle pieces into place. The image wouldn't come out right.

Fleetingly, Akashi wondered if maybe Kuroko were like him, with separate personalities, but quickly dismissed that notion. The Kuroko he'd seen in the warehouse was the same Kuroko he'd come to know over the years. Cool and calm, even in stressful situations, but with his fighting spirit hidden behind his poker face, and a deep dedication to those he cared for. Kuroko definitely wasn't a broken personality like Akashi. He was just a many-sided one.

"It's a long drive to Kyoto. You should try to sleep, Akashi-kun."

Akashi stared at him. The street lights and shadows cast an interesting pattern over Kuroko's face. "You're driving me to Kyoto?"

He'd thought Kuroko was taking him to the train station.

"It is the safest way to return you to your school."

Akashi continued to stare. Kuroko ignored this and paid attention to traffic.

"What did I do to deserve a friend like you?" asked Akashi after several very long seconds.

That caught Kuroko's attention, and the smaller boy looked back. His face was impassive, but there was a little bit of surprise in his voice when he spoke, like he was confused why Akashi hadn't figured out the answer on his own. "You became a friend like that to me."

* * *

(sorry if Akashi's OOC. He's supposed to be in a mild state of shock. But even normally, he's hard to write)

Please review!


	9. Kuroko no Tough as Nails

(takes place the night after the Kaijou-Seirin rematch in Winter Cup)

* * *

Kise was in agony.

His entire arm felt like it was burning from the inside out. Even gritting his teeth couldn't hold back his moans of pain. He'd run out of tears a long time ago.

"Should we take him back to the hospital, Kasamatsu?" Kobori asked.

"No hospital. Not again," Kise ground out. Then he rolled on his side to face away from his senpai so they couldn't see his face twisted up from the hurt.

"Kise . . ." Kasamatsu sounded more worried than Kise had ever heard him. "I'm starting to think we need to. This obviously isn't getting any better. They must have missed something in the X-ray."

"Auuuughah!" Kise's attempt at answering turned into a pained cry.

"Kise . . ." Kasamatsu reached down and put a cool hand on his forehead. Then he made a slight sound of disgust that he did his best to hide. "You're sweating so much, I can't tell if you've got a fever or not, but this isn't natural."

"Don't want hospital . . ." groaned Kise. That would mean walking. His leg had just stopped bothering him. He didn't want the pain flaring up in it in addition to this agony tearing apart his arm. "Want . . . augh."

"I don't know what else to do, Kise," Kasamatsu said. "And none of us can stand seeing you in so much pain. We have to take you back."

"Noooo."

"There's one other option," spoke up Nakamura. "We could try calling that invisible kid."

"Kurokocchi!" Kise cried out, then gave another groan. "No. Don't . . . don't call him."

"It's his pass that caused this, right? Copying it, or messing up copying it," said Nakamura.

"This isn't Kurokocchi's fault!" Kise moaned. "It's mine. Don't you blame him!"

"I wasn't. I was just theorizing he might have made a similar mistake when he was learning it," said Nakamura. "He might be able to help."

"It's past midnight," Kasamatsu said, sounding troubled. "And he's got the championship match tomorrow."

"Don't call," ordered Kise. He did his best to sound more put together. "The pain's less now. It really is. Don't bother . . . Kurokocchi . . . with this."

"You fail as an actor Kise!" Hayakawa shouted, slurring his words together so that they were almost beyond comprehension.

"He's right," Moriyama said. "If anything, the pain's getting worse."

"Kuroko's his close friend, right?" asked Kobori. "And Kise's in tremendous pain. If our positions were reversed, wouldn't we want Hyuuga to give us a call, asking for Kise's advice on how to help Kuroko? And wouldn't Kise want to be there for his friend, no matter what's happening tomorrow?"

"This is different!" whined Kise. He grit his teeth again.

"Screw it. I'm calling him. Where's your phone, Kise?"

"I'm not telling!" Kise thought he sounded rather dignified right there, but ruined it by making a pathetic little noise in his throat as the pain in his arm flared up again. It was burning into his shoulder now too. He had no idea how he'd messed up Kuroko's Ignite Pass so badly that he had done this to himself, but he couldn't stand the thought of Kuroko finding out about it. As much as he'd love to see his friend's face right now, the reason would be so far beyond humiliating.

"Here it is. It was in his gym bag," Moriyama said.

"Don't," Kise moaned.

Kasamatsu ignored him and took his phone from Moriyama. "Kuroko . . . Kuroko . . . ah, here we go. Kurokocchi."

Kise buried his face in his pillow to smother a scream of frustration, pain, and humiliation all rolled into one.

Kasamatsu must have put the phone on speaker, because they could all hear when Kuroko answered, on the first ring.

"I'm sorry mother. I'm on my way home right now. Please don't worry."

"Er, Kuroko? It's Kasamatsu. From Kaijou," Kasamatsu corrected Kuroko's misconception. Kurokocchi must have answered his phone without looking to see who it was calling him. Well, at least they hadn't woken him up. But Kise had enough presence of mind not to be very happy about Kuroko being out on the streets alone after midnight.

"Kasamatsu-san?" It might have been Kise's imagination, but he thought he heard a little bit of worry in Kuroko's voice. "Is Kise-kun alright?"

"Er . . ."

"What's happened?"

"Using your Ignite Pass has left him a mess," Kasamatsu said. "He must have copied it wrong and hurt his muscles, and he's in a ton of pain right now. We already took him to the hospital, but they said there was nothing wrong with him. But something's clearly wrong. And we were wondering . . . we were hoping you might be able to tell us what to do?"

"Where are you right now, Kasamatsu-san?" asked Kuroko.

"At our hotel." Kasamatsu gave the name. "But –"

"I am on my way. I'll see you soon."

"What? But Kuroko - Hey!"

The dial tone was Kasamatsu's only answer.

"Noooo," groaned Kise. "What have you done, senpai? Kurokocchi . . . Kurokocchi shouldn't be out this late alone!"

"We didn't have a choice, Kise," said Kasamatsu. "You're in so much pain you can't even sleep!"

"I don't want Kurokocchi getting mugged coming to help me so late at night!"

"They'd have to see him to be able to mug him!" Hayakawa pointed out, speaking unintelligibly as usual.

"He's right," Kobori said after they all took a moment to figure out what their over-excited teammate had said.

"B-but –"

"Wouldn't you come if it was Kuroko who was hurt?"

"That's different!" Kise protested, his voice muffled because he was hiding his face in his pillow again.

"How?"

"It just is!"

* * *

Not ten minutes later, there was a knock on their door.

Kise looked up, dazed and confused, wondering if he'd spaced out and missed it when Kuroko called back to find out their room number . . . or something. But the looks on his senpai's faces showed them to be as bewildered as he was.

Kasamatsu opened the door to reveal Kuroko's slight figure. He was wearing his Seirin track pants, and basketball jacket, over his long sleeved t-shirt, and carrying his gym bag. His hair was in good order, so Kise could tell he hadn't slept at all yet. And since he had a game tomorrow, the championship no less, that was not a good thing. Kuroko really needed to take better care of himself, Kise decided.

But he was in no state to say all that. His shoulder was still throbbing and burning, and when he opened his mouth all that came out was a pained moan.

"Kise-kun," Kuroko said, stepping into the room and quickly kicking off his shoes. "Please pardon my intrusion."

"Not at all. Thanks for coming," said Kasamatsu.

"Do you know what's wrong with him?" Kobori asked. "Or how to fix it? We're pretty sure this is happening because he messed up when he copied your Ignite Passes."

"He didn't," said Kuroko, walking swiftly to Kise's bedside and opening his gym bag. "He copied it perfectly. This pain is the price of using the Ignite Pass."

"What?" asked six horrified voices.

"Please don't worry. It's not permanent," said Kuroko. "It will go away on its own in time. Usually three days. These will make it bearable in the meantime."

He turned his gym bag upside down and dumped its contents of several small boxes, tubes of ointment, and a small plastic jar onto the bedspread, beside Kise. They all had the same color scheme and seemed to be different products from the same brand. Kise stared hazily at the label on the closest one and tried to read the English letters.

"IcyHot?" asked Kasamatsu, picking one of them up.

"Yes. From America. Please help me remove Kise-kun's shirt."

Kise forced himself to meet Kuroko's eyes. "Kurokocchi. I'm sorry."

Kuroko blinked at him. "For what?"

"D-dragging you out here You should be rest – augh!" Kise let out a cry as Kasamatsu and Moriyama eased him into a sitting position, and carefully peeled his sweat-soaked shirt off him. They took particular care with his injured arm, but it was impossible to get the shirt off without jostling it a little.

"I should apologize to you, Kise-kun," said Kuroko, opening the plastic jar. The smell of menthol drifted into the air. "I should have realized this might happen to you too. I thought the problem was only with my body, not the pass itself."

Kise's eyes grew wide as he realized what Kuroko was actually saying. "Kurokocchi, you – oh!"

He gasped as Kuroko pressed a generous amount of the ointment from the jar onto his bicep and instantaneously, blessed coldness seeped through his burning skin and muscles.

Kuroko spread the ointment over Kise's skin and rubbed it in, then scooped out more and spread it over his forearm. As he worked, the coldness subsided, and was replaced by heat. Not burning like the pain had been before, but a good kind of heat. Like from a hot spring.

"That . . . that feels amazing," said Kise, dazedly as Kuroko crawled onto the bed behind him so that he could apply more of the ointment to Kise's shoulder, massaging it into Kise's skin all the way down to his shoulder blade, and all the way over to his spine.

"I'll leave these with you," said Kuroko when he finished, wiping his hands clean on a towel that had been in his bag. He caught Kasamatsu's gaze, then proceeded to give them a rundown of the products. "Extra-strength balm, for when the pain's the worst. Regular strength cream, for when the pain's not as bad. And medicated patches, for when you can't afford to get the balm or cream on your clothes."

He put his towel back into his bag and zipped it up.

"Don't you need some of these, yourself?" asked Kasamatsu, looking shaken.

"I have more at home. It's difficult to get here in Japan. But this is what works best," said Kuroko. There was a haunted look in his eyes as he brought his gaze back to Kise. "I apologize again, Kise-kun."

"It's not your fault," Kise whispered. The pain had only completely disappeared temporarily. Now it was back, but not nearly as bad as it had been. Whatever was in the miracle balm Kuroko used on him was holding back the worst of it. "But Kurokocchi . . ."

"Yes, Kise-kun?"

"You feel like this too after you use your Ignite Passes?" asked Kise, barely able to believe it. "This pain?"

"Yes."

All of Kaijou was staring at Kuroko now. He shifted uncomfortably under their attention.

"You don't get used to it?" Kasamatsu asked with something very akin to horror.

Kuroko looked at him confused. "I am used to it."

"But . . . so it doesn't hurt as much now?"

"That is not what I meant," said Kuroko. "It still hurts just as much."

"So what you're saying is you've gotten used to dealing with the pain?" asked Nakamura.

"Yes."

"And it always hurts just as much after you use that pass?" asked Kobori. "As much as it did the first time?"

"Yes."

"Every time?" asked Hayakawa, speaking slowly and mostly clearly for once.

"Yes. Every time," Kuroko answered. Kuroko looked very much like he'd rather not be answering all these questions, or be the center of attention. Kise was almost positive that Kuroko would have ducked out and left if it wasn't for Kise himself being in pain because of copying his passes. Kuroko might pretend to be unfeeling, but when his friends needed him he always came through. Right now Kaijou, and Kise needed information on what was happening to Kise. Kuroko was the only one with the answers.

Kise could see Kasamatsu looking torn between being impressed and wanting to throttle Kuroko and scream at him, demanding that he never use that pass again. The others all looked impressed and horrified in equal parts.

"So right now . . ." Kasamatsu choked.

Kuroko stared at him impassively for several seconds, then rolled up his sleeve to reveal one of the medicated patches.

"Not the extra strength balm?" asked Kobori.

"It's a rushed job," said Kuroko, looking awkward and a little embarrassed. "My team . . . we had something very important to take care of after our match."

Kasamatsu looked ready to spit fire. "More important than keeping you from being crippled by pain?"

"Kurokocchi . . . do they know what your passes do to you?" gasped Kise.

Kuroko didn't answer. He just stared at them. Which was an answer in itself.

"Kurokocchi!"

"I should go," said Kuroko.

Kasamatsu blocked him from the door.

"Sit down," Kaijou's captain ordered.

Kuroko looked at him with mild surprise. "I need to go home."

"I said sit down."

Kuroko hesitated a moment longer, then sat down beside Kise.

"Phone," ordered Kasamatsu.

Kuroko handed his phone over.

"Kobori, Moriyama, get his shirt off him. Gently," said Kasamatsu. Then he stepped a bit away from them to flip through Kuroko's contacts and find his mother's number. By the time he finished calling her and negotiating for custody of Kuroko for the night, Moriyama and Kobori had gotten Kuroko's jacket and shirt off him, and the medicated patches he'd been using too. Moriyama was massaging the IcyHot balm onto Kuroko's skinny bicep, while Kise watched enviously. Kuroko looked torn between being blissful because of the relief from the pain that the balm was providing him, and being just plain uncomfortable, being touched by someone he barely knew.

"You're staying here tonight," said Kasamatsu. "Your mom's agreed. You can share Kise's bed."

Kuroko shivered slightly as Moriyama spread more balm onto his shoulder. "Is that really alright?"

"Why wouldn't it be? Because you beat us today?" Kasamatsu looked slightly disgusted. "We'd have lost more than just a match if we left you in pain for a stupid reason like that. No game is worth people being senselessly hurt over."

Kuroko's eyes looked over-bright for a moment, before he ducked his head, hiding them from view. "Kise-kun found a wonderful team. I'm very glad."

Pain and exhaustion kept Kise from throwing himself on Kuroko and squeezing him half to death. He settled, instead, for just saying a very heartfelt, "Kurokocchi . . ."

"I'm finished, I think," said Moriyama. "Did I miss anywhere?"

"No. Thank you, Moriyama-san."

"If you're thankful, then win Winter Cup. Then introduce me to some of the girls who come flocking to you after your victory."

Kasamatsu kicked him. "Stop saying stupid things you idiot!"

Kobori stood up. "We should probably go back to our own rooms now. We all need rest for tomorrow's games."

Taking their cue from Kobori, the others got up and headed out as well, leaving Kise, Kuroko, and Kasamatsu in the room that Kise and Kasamatsu had originally been sharing together.

Kasamatsu gathered up the different IcyHot products and put them on the counter. Kise and Kuroko settled into bed, side by side, sharing the bed's sole pillow, like they'd done this before. They lacked the awkwardness that usually accompanied two guys who had to share the same bed, who weren't either related or dating. Kuroko looked like he might have fallen asleep the moment his head hit the pillow, and the covers were spread awkwardly over him on his side of the bed, so Kasamatsu straightened them with a sigh, pulling them up to Kuroko's chin and tucking them in around Kuroko, since the kid was still shivering slightly. Seirin couldn't afford for him to catch a cold tonight, and leaving him like that would be a poor way for Kaijou to repay him for coming all the way here to help them.

"I want to be tucked in too, senpai," said Kise, sounding more like himself than he had since the pain invaded his arm, less than an hour after their game ended, and left him as an agonized wreck.

"Shut up. Tuck yourself in."

"But senpaaaaaai."

Kasamatsu growled but relented, and walked around the bed to do the same thing for Kise.

"Thank you, senpai."

"You're annoying." Kasamatsu looked down at the two Miracles and shook his head. "Both of you. You shouldn't use that pass anymore if this is what it does to you."

Kise made a noncommitting noise, that Kasamatsu was easily able to interpret. "It's not going to make a bit of difference even if I order you never to use that pass again, is it?"

Kise gave an agonized little laugh. "It's going to be a very long time before I try an Ignite Pass again, but . . . if the situation calls for it, obviously I'm going to pull it out. I don't want to let my team down."

Kasamatsu sighed. "Now I just have to decide whether or not to rat him out to his team, about what he's doing to himself."

"You don't have to, senpai," said Kise. "I will."

Kasamatsu looked at him surprised. "Kise?"

"I'm going to wait until after their game," said Kise, and he winced slightly against the pain in his own arm and shoulder. "But they should know. I can't . . . I can't believe we never knew. He's been using that pass since _middle school._ Countless times. Almost careless how often. And . . . we never knew . . . he was putting himself through this."

Kasamatsu looked at Kuroko. The kid looked even younger while sleeping, with his hair starting to stick out in every direction. It was hard to believe someone that small and that delicate looking, was literally putting himself through torture for the sake of victory. No, for the sake of his team.

"Put it from your mind for now and go to sleep," ordered Kasamatsu. "I'm turning off the light now."

"Yes. Good night, senpai. And . . . thank you." There was still pain in Kise's voice, but it was nowhere near as bad as it had been before Kuroko showed up and showed them how to deal with it.

"Good night."

Kasamatsu sent one final glance at Kise before flicking off the light. He was glad to see his kouhai's color looked a little better now too, and he seemed to have stopped sweating so badly from the pain. Kasamatsu's gaze shifted to Kuroko, lying right next to Kise, and he grimaced as he turned off the light.

Who would have ever thought that in that small, fragile body, was a heart made of solid steel?

* * *

please review!


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